Mm0i 


{tiS^5i5x5K5d0.ci'x: 


Ij  I  B  II-  ^A.  n  ^^ 

®hcoUuiical   ^cminavy,  I 

j'lUNCETox.  y.  J. 

The  Stephen  Collins  Donation. 

^r       ,,  Division 

No.  Ois..       /^K-  


3/§( 


THE    SUPERNATURAL 


THE   SUPEENATURAL 


IN  RELATION  TO  THE  NATURAL. 


BY^tHE   REV. 

JAMES  M'COSH,  LL.D. 

AUTHOR  OF     "  THE   METHOD   OF   THE   BIVINE   GOVERNMENT, 
"  INTUITIONS    OF   THE   MIND,"    ETC. 


NEW     YORK: 
ROBERT    CARTER    &    BROTHERS, 


No.     281     BROADWAY 

1802. 


IELFAST:      ALEX.    MAYXE,   PRINTI 


PEEFACE. 

The  author  of  this  Treatise  all  along  intended 
that  his  Work  on  ^^The  Method  of  the  Divine 
Government  Physical  and  Moral"  should  be  fol- 
lowed by  another  on  ''  The  Method  of  the  Divine 
Government  Supernatural  and  Spiritual."  This 
Essay  may  be  regarded  as  Part  First  of  that  con- 
templated work.  Whether  it  will  be  succeeded 
by  a  Second  Part,  bearing  more  especially  on  the 
Spiritual  Economy  of  God  in  our  world,  depends  on 
so  many  circumstances  at  the  disposal  of  a  Higher 
Power,  that  he  thinks  it  wiser  to  make  no  promise 
to  the  public  on  the  subject.  The  questions  agi- 
tated in  our  day  have  called  on  him,  in  the  mean 
time,  to  give  to  the  world  the  First  or  Apologetic 
Part  of  the  intended  publication.  His  deepest 
feeling,  in  now  issuing  it  from  the  press,  is  a  regret 


VI 

that  it  is  not  more  worthy  of  the  all-important 
theme  discussed. 

In  this  world  of  ours  the  work  of  destruction  is 
easier  than  that  of  reconstruction.  A  few  reckless 
men  may,  in  a  few  hours,  break  or  consume  as 
much  valuable  property  as  would  require  many 
sober  men,  many  years  of  toil,  to  repair  or  restore. 
When  the  authors  of  ''Essays  and  Eeviews " 
began  to  scatter  inflammable  materials,  the  first 
efforts  of  the  defenders  of  the  citadel  attacked 
were  naturally  directed  towards  ascertaining 
the  precise  aims  of  the  combatants,  and  stay- 
ing the  immediate  effects  on  the  minds  of  the 
nation.  I  suppose,  however,  that  the  public 
feel  that  we  have  had  enough  of  disquisitions 
as  to  the  position  of  the  Essayists,  and  as  to  the 
tendency  and  probable  effect  of  their  writings. 
There  is  also  a  very  general  feeling  that  we  must 
now  have  something  beyond  those  excellent  little 
articles  and  essays,  which  have  been  written  with 
the  view  of  counteracting  the  general  influence  of 
the  doubts  that  have  been  insinuated  in  regard  to 


Vll 


the  Word  of  God,  and  the  attacks  that  have  been 
made  on  the  fundamental  principles  of  religion. 
The  expectation  now  is,  that  there  must  be  a 
laborious  discussion  of  all  and  of  each  of  the 
questions  started,  and  this  on  their  absolute 
merits,  with  a  view  it  may  be  to  existing  contro- 
versies, but  on  grounds  and  by  principles  not 
peculiar  to  this  or  to  any  age. 

It  has  often  been  remarked,  that  in  a  com- 
mon-place subject  it  is  easier  to  advance  an 
acute  objection  than  to  offer  a  telling  reply.  A 
man  may  acquire  a  reputation  for  ingenuity  more 
readily  by  proving  that  a  stone  is  not  a  stone, 
than  by  a  laboured  demonstration  that  it  is  a 
stone.  Nevertheless,  the  friends  of  religion,  na- 
tural and  revealed,  must  engage  patiently  in  the 
work  of  defending  what  has  been  attacked.  It 
may  be  all  true  that  the  objections  have  been 
offered  before  ;  it  may  also  be  true  that  they 
have  been  answered  before ;  still,  as  long  as  the 
attacks  continue,  and  there  is  a  race  of  young 
men  springing  up  who  are  exposed  to  them,  those 


Vlll 

set  for  the  defence  of  the  fortress  must  meet  tliem^ 
and  this  at  the  very  points  at  which  the  assaults 
are  made.  This  is  what  is  expected,  in  the  present 
day,  of  the  defenders  of  religion.  This  is  what  they 
owe  to  truth  ;  this  is  what  they  owe  to  the  God  €f 
truth.  It  is  thus  that  what  seemed  an  evil  may, 
by  God's  blessing,  be  turned  to  good. 

We  have  seen  a  company  of  boys  at  the  top  of 
a  steep  hill  setting  a  number  of  stoneS  rolling, 
without  seriously  contemplating  whither  they 
might  go,  and  what  injury  they  might  do 
among  those  sitting,  or  lounging,  or  working 
below.  The  writers  of  the  ^^  Essays  and  Re- 
views" have  been  acting  very  much  like  these 
youths.  Seated  on  their  academic  heights,  they 
did  intend  to  let  loose  a  set  of  active  agencies 
which  might  move  and  startle  the  Church  and  the 
world ;  but  I  am  convinced  that  some  of  them  did 
not  calmly  weigh  the  destructive  effects  that  might 
be  produced  on  those  beneath,  as  these  rolling 
stones  came  rushing  in  among  tjiem.  I  believe 
that  the  issue,  chronological  and  logical,  of  the 


IX 


views  propounded,  on  those  wlio  fall  thoroughly 
under  their  influence,  must  be  a  denial  or  at  least 
a  doubt,  of  any  supernatural  power  having  been  in 
operation,  at  the  creation  of  the  world  or  since, 
either  in  the  production  of  man  or  in  order  to 
his  redemption.  Whatever  Mr.  Temple  or  Mr. 
Jowett  may  have  meant,  we  may  see — unless  it 
be  counteracted — the  proper  result  of  the  whole 
movement  in  once  living  faiths  groaning,  bleed- 
ing, and  dying  in  that  stony,  arid,  and  horrid 
plain  which  Mr.  Baden  Powell  has  provided  in 
his  exclusive  naturalism,  in  his  mechanical  law, 
and  physical  causation. 

The  profound  Leibnitz,  in  writing  to  Arnauld, 
intimates  his  fear  that  the  '4ast  of  heresies  may 
be,  I  do  not  say  Atheism,  but  Naturahsm  publicly 
professed."  Had  the  fisherman,  Peter,  a  prophetic 
glimpse  opened  to  him  of  the  same  state  of  things 
when  he  speaks  of  scoffers  who  shall  come  in  the 
last  days,  saying — '^  Since  the  fathers  fell  asleep 
all  things  continue  as  they  were  from  the  begin- 
ning of  creation  "  ? 

h 


The  questions  started  by  the  '^  Essays  and 
Reviews  "  relate  to  the  reality  and  possibility  of 
sujDernatural  operation  ;  to  the  historical  evidence 
substantiating  Christianity ;  to  the  inspiration  of 
God's  Word ;  and  to  the  topics  involved  in  these 
directly  or  collaterally.  We  must  now  have  these 
subjects  discussed;  either  in  one  great  work  issu- 
ing from  the  depths  of  a  comprehensive  mind,  or, 
what  may  serve  as  good  a  purpose,  in  a  number 
of  treatises  written  by  different  men,  each  taking 
up  the  theme  which  he  feels  himself  competent  to 
treat.  In  this  little  work  only  one  of  the  ques- 
tions raised  has  been  taken  up.  The  special  aim 
of  the  author  is  to  disentangle  the  confusion 
which  has  crept  into  the  discussion  of  one  great 
problem,  and  to  throw  what  light  he  can  on  the 
Natural  and  Supernatural,  and  the  relation  in 
which  they  stand  one  to  the  other,  to  man  and 
to  God. 


CONTENTS 


BOOK    EIEST. 

THE  NATURAL   IN  RELATION  TO   THE   SUPER- 
NATURAL. 

CHAPTER  I. 

PAOB 

Man  Discovering  the  Uniformity  of  Nature,  . ,  1 

CHAPTER  II. 

In  What  the  Natural  System  Consists,  ..  .,  26 

CHAPTER  III. 
Mental  Principles  IxWOlved  in  our  Conviction  as  to 

the  Uniformity  OF  Nature,     .,  ..  ..  36 

CHAPTER  IV. 
How  MUCH  IS  Contained  in  the  Natural,        ,.  ..  4o 

CHAPTER  V. 
The  Natural  a  Manifestation  of  the  Supernatural,  . .  82 


BOOK    SECOND. 

THE   SUPERNATURAL    IN  RELATION   TO   THE 
NATURAL. 


CHAPTER  I. 
General  Remarks  on  the  Supernatural, 

Sect.      I.  The  Precise  Nature  of  the  Supernatural, 
Sect.    II.  The  Possibility  of  a  Miracle, 
Sect.  III.  Purposes  served  by  the  Supernatural, 
Sect.  IV.  Relation  of  the  Supernatural  to  the  Natural, 


101 
101 
118 
133 
150 


Xll 


CHAPTER  II. 

The  System  in  the  Supernatural. 

Sect.  I.  There  is  System  in  the  Supernatural 

Sect.  II.  The  Typical  System  of  Revelation, 

Sect.  III.  The  System  of  Prophecy, 

Sect.  IV.  The  Plan  of  Christ's  Life, 

Sect.  V.  The  System  of  Miracles, 

Sect.  VI.  The  System  of  Doctrine, 

Sect.  VII.  The  System  of  Duty,  .. 

Sect.  VIII.  The  System  of  Means. 

Sect.  IX.  The  System  in  the  Dispensation  of  Grace, 

CHAPTER  III. 

The  Evidences  of  Christianity. 

Sect.  I.  A  Study  of  the  Christian  Evidences.  The  Evi- 
dences a  System, 

Sect.  II.  Connexion  between  the  Miracle  and  the  Doc- 
trine, 

Sect.  III.  Ends  accomplished  by  the  Systematic  Charac- 
ter of  Revelation, 


Analogy   between 

Systems,    . . 


CHAPTER  IV. 
THE    Natural    and    Supernatural 


PACK 

166 
178 
204 
228 
237 
256 
267 
271 
274 


282 
308 
316 

340 


APPEXDIX. 


Art.    I.  Oxford  Philosophy, 

Art.  II.  Bunsen  and  German  Theology, 


3-53 
363 


BOOE    FIEST. 


THE  NATURAL  IN  RELATION  TO  THE  SUPER- 
NATURAL, 


CHAPTER   I. 

MAN  DISCOVERING  THE  UNIFORMITY  OF  NATURE. 

It  is  a  most  vivid  and  iijtensely  interesting  pic- 
ture which  is  presented  to  us  by  Humboldt  in  the 
second  volume  of  the  Cosmos,  where  he  unfolds 
the  ideas  which  mankind  have  formed,  in  succes- 
sive ages,  of  the  magnitude  of  nature,  and  of  the 
manner  in  which  their  views  of  earth,  ocean,  and 
sky,  of  plant,  animal,  and  man,  became  enlarged, 
as  voyagers  and  travellers  explored  new  countries, 
and  as  science  extended  its  observations  and  cal- 
culations, and  combined  them  into  general  laws. 
It  would  be  quite  as  interesting,  and  fully  as  in- 
structive, to  have  a  like  panoramic  view  of  the 
conceptions  which  men  have  been  led  to  enter- 
tain, at  various  times  and  in  various  countries, 
of  the  nature  and  extent  of  uniformity  and  of 
law  in  creation,  and  of  the  enlargement  of  their 

A 


MAN  DISCOVERING 


apprehensions  and  beliefs,  as  observation  and 
science  pushed  on  their  researches,  and  widened 
the  sphere  of  their  discoveries.  In  now  endea- 
vouring to  furnish  this,  I  am  not  to  attempt  such 
a  glowing  historical  painting  as  Humboldt  has 
set  before  us;  I  must  content  myself  with  a 
simple  sketch  in  plain  water-colours. 

Let  us  try  to  put  ourselves  in  the  position  of  a 
shepherd,  a  hunter,  or  a  tiller  of  the  ground  in 
the  early  ages  of  the  world,  or  of  an  uneducated 
man  in  countries  beyond  or  in  states  of  society 
beneath  the  reach  of  civilization,  as  he  looks  out 
on  the  phenomena  of  nature.  Two  deep  impres- 
sions, I  think,  w^ould  be.  left  on  the  mind  of  such 
aii  one ; — one,  that  there  is  uniformity,  and  the 
other,  that  there  is  irregularity  in  nature. 

The  uniformity  presses  itself  everywhere  on  his 
notice.  He  sees  it  in  day  following  night,  and 
night  succeeding  day,  in  the  sun  pursuing  his 
steady  course  in  the  heavens,  and  in  the  seasons 
appearing  in  due  order ;  he  discovers  it  in  food 
nourishing  and  sleep  refreshing  him,  in  the 
growth  of  the  grass  and  the  trees,  of  his  lambs 
and  his  cattle.  But  in  the  very  midst  of  these 
regularities  there  are  occurrences  which  come 
after  a  different  fashion.  The  sun  rises  and  sets 
with  undeviating  constancy,  but  the  eclipse  ap- 
pears very  inconstantly  and  the  lightning  flashes 
very  unexpectedly.    The  seasons  accomplish  their 


TEE  UNIFORMITY  OF  XATURR  6 

beneficent  rotation  without  a  failure;  but  storms 
arise  and  rains  descend  (in  most  climates)  in 
perplexing  and  puzzling  uncertainty.  His  bodily 
frame  performs  its  functions,  and  his  grain 
and  fruit-trees,  his  flocks  and  herds,  spring  up 
and  grow  according  to  a  very  obvious  course, 
which  he  can,  to  a  large  extent,  anticipate ;  but 
blight  or  disease  may  come  upon  them  at  most 
unexpected  and  troublesome  times,  to  disappoint 
his  plans  and  blast  his  prospects. 

If  our  observer  be  a  godly  man,  that  is,  with 
a  heart  inclined  towards  God,  he  will  discover 
and  acknowledge  the  presence  of  a  Divine  Being 
in  each  of  these  classes  of  objects.  But,  on  the 
other  hand,  if  he  be  disposed  to  live  without  God, 
and  to  keep  Him  at  a  distance,  he  may  find  a 
convenient  means  of  accounting  for  both  without 
calling  in  a  living  and  acting  being,  employing 
physical  agents  to  accomplish  beneficent  and 
moral  ends.  To  explain  what  seems  settled  and 
constant  he  may  give  a  power  and  a  being  to 
Nature,  constituting  it  into  a  self-working  ma- 
chine, while  he  refers  the  irregularities  and  inter- 
ferences to  Chance,*  not  that  he  ever  thinks  of 
defining  Chance ;  but  he  means  that  the  events 
come  without  any  purpose  of  a  designing  mind. 

But,  meanwhile,  man  has  deep  religious  ten- 
dencies and  impulses,  which  will  break  out  de- 
spite his  unbelief  and  in  the  very  midst  of  his 


4  MAN  DISCOVERING 

ungodliness.  Circumstances  arise  and  feelings 
are  awakened,  \Yhich  constrain  him  to  look  out 
for,  or  to  believe  he  discovers,  a  Being  above  these 
mundane  agents.  But  the  whole  history  of  man 
shows  that  while  he  has  deep  religious  instincts, 
they  do  not  usually  work  in  a  healthy  manner. 
Too  frequently  they  are  in  a  dormant  state,  and 
they  are  called  forth  only  by  what  rouses  the 
mind  into  excitement,  into  a  state  of  hope  or  a 
state  of  fear.  The  consequence  is  that  God  comes 
to  be  seen  in  certain  of  His  works,  and  not  in 
others; — in  those  wdiich  move  and  alarm,  not  in 
those  which  come  daily  and  steadily;  in  the 
drought  or  tempest  which  blights  the  crops,  not 
in  the  heat  and  moisture  which  make  them  to 
spring  up  and  grow  and  ripen ;  in  the  disease 
which  wastes  and  ravages,  not  in  the  health  which 
has  sustained  and  gladdened  the  frame  for  years ; 
in  the  lightning  which  smites,  but  not  in  the 
light  which  smiles ;  in  the  eclipse  with  its  lurid 
darkness,  but  not  in  the  pleasant  sunshine  daily 
playing  on  our  earth ;  in  the  meteor  which  bursts 
out  so  ominously,  but  not  in  the  stars  which  look 
down  upon  us  so  purely  and  benignly ;  in  sudden 
and  unexpected  prosperity,  but  not  in  the  com- 
mon blessings  which  are  showered  upon  us  from 
day  to  day ;  in  the  storm  which  sinks  the  vessel, 
but  not  in  the  favourable  breezes  which  have 
borne  it  along  for  such  a  length  of  time  ;  in  the 


THE  UNIFORMITY  OF  NATURE,  0 

preservation  of  the  individual  in  a  shipwreck,  but 
not  in  that  assiduous  care  which  to  so  many 
has  prevented  shipwreck  altogether.  This  is 
superstition,  which,  in  its  narrowness  and  par- 
tiahty,  discerns  the  God  who  is  in  all  nature,  only 
in  certain  portions  of  it.  When  unrestrained  by 
.foreign  influences  it  soon  issues  in  polytheism, 
or  the  belief  in  "  gods  many  and  lords  many," 
each  supposed  to  be  engaged  somehow  or  other 
in  interfering  with  what  has  been  settled,  and  in 
producing  those  irregularities  which  spring  up 
in  the  midst  of  the  uniformities,-  to  control  or  to 
disturb  them. 

It  is  a  perception  of  the  uniformity  of  nature 
which  forms  the  most  effective  natural  means  of 
making  mankind  keep  hold  of  the  unity  of  God. 
Those  who  have  lost,  or  who  have  never  reached, 
the  idea  that  there  is  a  connection  between  the 
various  physical  agencies  in  the  world,  are  sure 
to  look  upon  them  as  being  directed  or  interfered 
with  by  a  number  of  conspiring  or  conflicting 
supra-mundane  beings,  each  .with  a  purpose  of 
his  own ;  and  I  believe  the  great  body  of  man- 
kind can  be  kept  from  this  error  only  by  a  direct 
revelation  from  heaven  of  the  character  of  God. 
Even  those  who  have  a  written  word  will  ever 
be  tempted,  like  the  Jews  in  old  times,  to  run 
after  the  worship  of  a  multitude  of  gods,  or  like 
rude  unlettered  Christians  in  modern  times,  to 


6 


3IAX  DISCOVERING 


make  a  subordinate  class  of  preternatural  beings, 
such  as  saints  or  witches,  act  an  important  part 
in  those  cross  events  for  good  or  for  evil,  which  in- 
terpose to  help  or  to  hinder  the  more  direct  and 
settled  tendencies  of  nature. 

But  the  same  spirit  of  ungodliness  which 
allures  so  many  to  an  adulterous  attachment  to 
a  multiplicity  of  gods,  who  suit  their  contracted 
view^s  and  corrupt  taste,  may  take  another  form 
among  those  who  have  been  kept  from  polythe- 
ism by  a  comprehensive  conception  of  nature ; 
or,  by  what  is  more  common  in  the  ages  when 
persons  begin  to  reflect  and  philosophize,  by  a 
vehement  inclination  towards  abstract  thinking, 
which,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Eleatic  school'  of 
early  Greece,  perceives,  but  exaggerates  and  mis- 
interprets, the  unity  which  exists  amidst  the 
variety  of  physical  agents.  The  deep  natural  aver- 
sion to  a  pure  and  personal  God,  who  sees  the 
hearts  and  judges  the  deeds  of  man,  tempts  this 
latter  class  into  pantheism,  of  a  ruder  or  more 
refined  character;  and  they  look  on  nature  per- 
sonified as  being  God,  and  the  sun,  moon,  and 
stars,  or  the  animals  in  whom  the  principle  of  life  is 
most  active,  or  the  more  powerful  physical  agents, 
such  as  light  and  fire,  as  being  themselves  the 
acting  deities.  In  many  Eastern  countries  the 
two  forms  of  error  coalesce  and  exist  side  by  side ; 
the  pantheism  being  the  form  adopted  by  the 


TEE  VNIFORMITY  OF  NATURE.  * 

sages  who  mount  up  into  liigli  abstractions,  and 
the  polytheism  furnishing  the  channels  in  which 
the  religious  feelings  of  the  people  expend  them- 
selves. These  two,  the  nature  pantheism  and  the 
nature  polytheism,  have  a  great  many  more  points 
of  affinity  and  bonds  of  communion  than  we 
might  at  first  suppose.  The  philosophic  pan- 
theist is  quite  willing  to  allow  the  rabble  to  be 
polytheists,  since  they  can  rise  no  higher  in 
their  conceptions ;  he  will  let  them  freely  indulge 
in  the  worship  of  the  sun,  and  moon,  and  ani- 
mals, and  elements,  and  will  himself  fall  in, 
without  compunction,  with  their  worship,  looking 
upon  the  individual  natural  objects,  or  the  sym- 
bols of  them  in  the  temples,  merely  as  represen- 
tatives of  the  Whole;  and  with  this  accommoda- 
tion the  polytheist  is  entirely  satisfied,  which  he 
would  certainly  never  be  with  the  uncompromis- 
ing position  of  stern  distance  held  towards  him 
by  the  pure  theist.  The  two,  indeed,  often  meet 
in  the  same  individual;  the  pantheist,  finding 
that  his  abstractions  are  cold  and  unattractive, 
has  to  lavish  his  pent-up  feelings  on  beings  who 
can  hear  and  respond  to  the  breathings  or  beat- 
ings of  his  heart ;  while  the  polytheist,  in  his 
times  of  deeper  thought  and  sentiment,  or  of 
more  terrible  emergency,  feeling  as  if  all  inferior 
and  divided  powers  were  failing  him,  casts  himself 
on  the  One  Supreme  and  Omnipotent  God. 


8  MAN  DISCOVERING 

Taking  mankind  as  a  whole,  a  far  greater 
number  fall  into  superstition  than  into  panthe- 
ism. The  victim  of  superstition,  we  have  seen, 
feels  his  dependence  on  God  only  in  regard  to 
supposed  interferences  with  the  settled  course  of 
things.  The  Egyptians  told  Herodotus  that,  as 
their  fields  were  regularly  irrigated  by  the  waters 
of  the  Nile,  they  were  less  dependent  on  God 
than  the  Greeks,  whose  lands  were  watered  by 
rains,  and  who  must  perish  if  Jupiter  did  not 
send  them  showers."  Persons  trained  in  these 
narrow  views  are  apt  to  be  very  much  offended 
when  philosophers  argue  that  all  things  are  go- 
verned by  laws,  or  when  men  of  science  shew 
them  natural  powers,  where  they  believed  there 
was  only  a  Divine  agent.  They  feel  as  if  one 
part  of  God's  works  after  another  were  being 
wrested  from  Him  by  presumptuous  and  impious 
men,  who  would,  in  the  end,  leave  him  no  place 
at  which  he  can  interfere,  or  at  which  we  may 
discern  his  agency.  Hence  the  conflicts  between 
science  and  religion,  or  rather  between  science 
and  persons  resolved  to  stand  up  for  God,  but 
who  have  adopted  the  doctrine  that  they  must 
cease  to  recognise  Divine  action  as  soon  as  they 
find  physical  agency.  As  one  field  of  nature 
after  another  is  taken  from  God  and  given  over  to 
mundane  operation,  some  grieve,  others  rejoice, 

*  Herodotus,  II.  13. 


TEE  UNIFOEMITT  OF  KATURE.  9 

while  a  third  class  are  exasperated  into  bitterness 
aiid  fanaticism.  Some  feel  their  whole  soul  per- 
plexed, and  their  heart  failing  them,  as  they  find 
the  gods  driven  from  the  wopds  and  the  streams, 
from  the  mountains  and  the  stars,  and  allowed 
to  interfere  neither  with  health  nor  disease.  Not 
a  few,  as  they  discover  that  the  Divinity  can  no 
longer  be  found  in  what  they  have  been  taught  to 
recognize  as  his  place  of  abode  and  special  sphere 
of  action,  are  greatly  tempted  to  abandon  them- 
selves to  utter  unbelief, — it  is  as  if  they  had 
entered  into  the  inner  shrine  of  their  temple, 
where  they  were  told  that  God  dwelt,  and  found  it 
all  emptiness — it  is  as  if  a  Jew  had  been  brought, 
by  unexpected  circumstances,  or  by  a  rash  deed 
of  profanity,  into  the  holiest  of  all,  and  found 
there  no  ark  of  the  covenant,  no  Divine  presence. 
Others  feel  and  express  their  joy,  as  they  have 
been  delivered  from  all  fear  of  a  God  to  judge 
and  to  punish ;  and  they  often  break  out  into 
scoffing  and  profanity.  As  to  the  great  mass  of 
vulgar  minds,  they  at  once  rush  into  an  unwise 
and  violent  contest  with  the  advocates  of  natural 
agency;  they  denounce  them  as  ungodly,  and  at 
times  expose  them  to  a  virulent  persecution. 
These  throes  are  the  Nemesis  which  ever  pursues 
error  (as  w^ell  as  crime),  till  thinking  minds  are 
led  to  undertake  the  task  of  readjusting  the  rela- 
tions of  physical  and  Divine  agency. 


1^  MAX  DISCOVERING 

When  nations  are  first  brought  into  view  by 
their  historic  records,  we  find  them  looking  on 
certain  objects  and  certain  departments  of  nature 
as  settled  and  fixed,  while  others  are  regarded  as 
irregular,  or  at  least  disconnected  the  one  with 
the  other;  the  former  being  ascribed  to  the  gods 
or  to  nature,  the  latter  to  the  gods  or  fortuity, 
according  as  persons  are  piously  or  profanely  dis- 
posed. It  is  in  this  state  that  we  find  Greece, 
when  its  earliest  writings  enable  us  to  understand 
the  views  and  thoughts  of  the  people.  The  hills, 
the  fields,  the  seasons,  the  ordinary  life  of  the 
plant,  of  the  animal,  and  of  man,  are  objects 
about  which  httle  curiosity  is  excited,  and  httle 
inquiry  is  made  ;  they  seem  all  ruled  and  deter- 
mined, or  they  run  their  undeviating  course 
without  requiring  any  external  aid  to  help  them 
on.  It  is  different  with  objects  within  the  reach 
of  man's  view,  but  beyond  his  minute  inspection, 
and  with  events  which  come  with  variations,  or 
which  appear  at  unforeseen  times  or  with  tremen- 
dous energy.  As  observation  extended,  and 
science  co-ordinated  the  facts  gathered,  the  por- 
tion of  the  universe  seen  to  be  regulated  by  law 
of  some  sort,  became  larger  in  itself,  and  in  com- 
parison with  the  seeming  irregularities  and  ano- 
mahes.  It  was  seen,  from  the  time  when  observa- 
tion began,  that  the  sun  has  in  himself  some  power 
of  shining,  and  that  his  course  is  a  regular  one ; 


TEE  UNIFORMITY  OF  NATURE. 


11 


but  certain  superstitions  were  interfered  with  when 
the  Babylonian  star-gazers  could  predict  the 
exact  time  of  the  occurrence  of  the  eclipses  of  the 
moon.  Those  who  were  taught  to  consider  the 
heavenly  bodies  as  divine,  could  not  look  with 
much  favour  on  x^naximander  of  Miletus,  when  he 
instituted  calculations  as  to  the  sizes  and  distances 
of  some  of  the  heavenly  bodies ;  or  upon  another 
Ionian  physiologist,  Anaxagoras  of  Clazomenae, 
when  he  speculated  as  to  the  causes  of  the  moon's 
light  and  the  eclipses  of  the  sun  and  moon,  and 
maintained  that  the  moon,  like  the  earth,  had 
plains,  mountains,  valleys,  and  dwellings,  evi- 
dently for  intelligent  beings.  A  revolution  was 
about  to  be  effected  in  men's  ideas  of  the  world 
when  Aristotle"  elaborately  demonstrated  that 
the  earth  must  be  spherical. 

Anaxagoras,  it  is  well  known,  represented  rea- 
son as  the  first  or  deepest  principle  in  the  sys- 
tem of  the  universe,  and  maintained  that  by  it 
all  things  were  caused  and  set  in  order.  When 
some  one  read  this  to  Socrates  he  was  highly 
delighted,  and  thought  he  had  now  discovered  a 
sufficient  explanation  of  what  came  under  his 
notice  in  the  world.  But  having  got  the  books 
of  the  Ionian  physiologist,  he  was  astonished  to 
find  that  after  making  reason  arrange  all  things, 
Anaxagoras  makes  no  farther  reference  to  it,  but 

*  De  Coelo,  II.  14. 


12 


31  AN  DISCO  VERIXG 


calls  in  "  air,  ether,  and  water,  and  many  other 
things  equally  out  of  place,"*  From  the  few 
isolated  references  to  the  doctrines  of  Anaxagoras 
handed  down  to  us  from  ancient  times,  wo  can- 
not ascertain  how  he  reconciled  his  two  state- 
ments, of  all  things  heing  caused  and  disposed  by 
intelligence,  and  of  the  physical  elements  being 
the  agents  employed  in  the  production  of  natural 
occurrences.  But  the  criticism  of  Socrates,  and 
we  may  add,  the  like  criticism  in  the  next  age  by 
Aristotle,  f  shew  that  neither  of  these  philoso- 
phers had  attained  clear  ideas  of  the  compati- 
bility of  all  things  being  caused  and  arranged  by 
Divine  reason,  and  yet  of  the  economy  of  the  world 
being  carried  on  under  God  by  physical  agents. 
Socrates  may  be  taken  as  the  type  of  the  religious 
philosopher  of  ancient  Greece  or  Eome,  bent  upon 
seeing  God  and  the  gods  (for  in  his  creed  there  is  a 
somewhat  incongruous  mixture  of  pure  theism 
and  polytheism)  in  all  nature  and  in  a  well- 
ordered  providence.  Aristotle  may  be  taken  as 
the  representative  of  the  mere  metaphysical  and 
physical  speculators  of  the  same  era,  acknow- 
ledging a  God  or  gods,  and  perceiving  an  order 
and  a  system,  but  not  discovering  or  explaining 
how  God  is  using  all  physical  agencies  for  the 
accomphshment  of  his  purposes.  Neither  of 
these  profound  thinkers  seems  to  have  risen  to 

*  Phaedo  of  Plato,  105—108.  f  Metaph.  I.  iv.  4. 


THE  UmFOHMITY  OF  NATUME.  13 

the  idea  of  a  God  actiDg  everywhere  in  nature, 
by  natural  agency,  according  to  natural  law. 
Meanwhile,  the  great  body  of  the  people  divided 
what  w^e  call  nature  into  two  parts,  one  of  which 
they  ascribed  to  the  system  of  things,  or  to  chance, 
and  the  other  of  which  they  ascribed  to  their  gods, 
and  they  were  jealous  to  an  intense  and  vehe- 
ment degree  of  all  those  philosophic  speculators 
or  physical  inquirers,  who  maintained  or  wdio 
hinted  that  what  they  had  reserved  for  these  divi- 
nities could  be  accounted  for  by  natural  causes. 
I  believe  that  the  heart  of  many  an  earnest  and 
thinking  youth  was  wrung  with  agony,  and 
could  find  no  sympathizing  one  to  whom  to 
express  it,  as  he  struggled  between  the  super- 
stition in  wdiich  he  had  been  trained,  and  the 
natural  discoveries  which  w^ere  being  opened  to 
him  ;  as  he  strove  to  retain  both,  and  found  them 
to  be  incompatible ;  or  as  he  abandoned  the  faith 
of  his  youth  to  give  himself  up  to  a  cold  and 
comfortless  scepticism.  It  is  painful  and  hum- 
bling to  read  the  record  of  such  conflicts,  in 
which  a  steadily  advancing  science  has  ever  been 
victorious,  while  its  opponents  have  been  obliged 
to  give  up  one  untenable  defence  after  another. 
But  it  is  not,  after  all,  without  its  valuable  les- 
sons, for  it  shews  that  the  defender  of  religion  is 
betraying  the  cause  committed  to  him,  when  he 
allows  directly,  or  by  implication,  that  God  is  not 


1 4  MAN  DISCO  VERIXG 

to  be  seen  in  what  is  brought  about  by  those 
wise  and  beneficent  laws  which  he  himself  hath 
instituted. 

It  can  be  proven  that  some  of  the  ancients  had 
grand  glimpses  of  the  unity  of  nature,  evidently 
suggested  by  the  correlations  which  were  ever  cast- 
ing up  among  things,  wdiich  at  first  sight  seemed 
so  unlike  and  disconnected.  These  were  gene- 
ralized far  too  hastily  into  doctrines  not  autho- 
rised by  the  facts,  but  some  of  them,  notwithstand- 
ing, have  turned  out  to  be  curious  anticipations, 
and,  as  it  were,  jjresages  of  modern  discoveries. 
The  Pythagoreans  traced  regulated  numbers  and 
forms  through  every  object  in  the  heavens  and 
earth :  it  should  be  added,  that  they  did  so  in  a 
very  mystical  and  unscientific  manner.  Plato 
dehghted  to  recognize  earthly  things  as  being 
after  the  patterns  of  eternal  wisdom ;  and  as  he 
often  failed  to  discover  the  Divine  model,  he 
ascribed  the  failure  to  the  incapacity  of  matter  to 
receive  the  Divine  idea.  The  views  of  these  gifted 
men,  though  large  and  expanded,  were  shadowy 
and  uncertahi ;  they  were  the  presentiments  of 
genius  looking  to  a  few  obvious  facts,  and  not 
the  results  of  a  careful  induction,  and  they  were 
mixed  up  with  innumerable  errors.  Of  all  the 
ancient  sects,  the  Stoics,  as  we  might  expect 
from  their  methodical  mode  of  procedure  in 
everything,  contrived  to  draw  out  the  most  com- 


TEE  TTNIFORMITY  OF  NATURE.  3  5 

plete  plan  of  the  system  of  the  world.  But  their 
scheme  was  entirely  theoretical,  and  was  built  on 
no  induction  of  facts,  and  modern  science  has 
completely  set  it  aside.  By  help  of  a  passive 
principle  which  is  matter,  and  an  active  principle 
which  is  God,  and  the  four  elements,  fire,  mois- 
ture, air,  and  earth,  they  constituted  the  world, 
in  which  the  presiding  principle  is  fire,  identified 
by  them  with  God ;  which  world  has  undergone, 
and  shall  undergo,  an  infinite  series  of  cycles, 
each  closing  as  it  had  begun  with  a  conflagra- 
tion, in  which  all  things  are  absorbed  into  the 
elemental,  the  intellectual,  the  Divine  fire,  out  of 
which,  as  the  heat  subsides,  there  come,  first  the 
gods  and  the  heavenly  bodies,  and  then  the  earth 
with  the  objects  on  it,  each  new  cycle  exhibiting 
the  same  scenes  as  had  gone  before,  so  that  in 
the  next  period  (as  in  the  present)  there  shall  be 
a  corresponding  Socrates  who  shall  marry  a  cor- 
responding Xantippe,  and  be  accused  by  a  cor- 
responding Anytos  and  Melitos."^' 

It  is  only  in  modern  times  that  the  doctrine  of 
the  unity  and  system  of  nature  has  been  esta- 
blished on  a  basis  of  facts.  It  is  interesting  to 
observe  the  stages  by  which  the  human  mind 
has  proceeded  in  its  progress.  First,  Copernicus 
promulgates  the   great  revolutionary  truth  that 

*  Orig.,  Contra.  Gels.  IV.    Seneca,  Quaes.  Natur.  III.  29.     M.  Aur., 
Med.  VII.  19.     Plut.  Contrad.  Stoic,  &c. 


1  6  MAN  JDISCOVEBIXG 

the  sun,  as  the  larger  body,  must  be  the  centre 
of  the  system,  and  that  our  earth  goes  round  him 
as  a  dependency — an  idea  which  had  been  thrown 
out  in  a  mystic  way  by  certain  Pythagoreans  at  a 
time  when  the  world  was  not  prepared  to  receive 
it,  but  is  now  taken  by  the  modern  world  as  a 
fertile  seed  into  its  bosom.  A  change  from  the 
earth  to  the  sun  as  the  centre  of  the  system  would 
not  produce  so  great  an  effect  on  the  physical 
world,  as  that  produced  in  man's  ideas  when  he 
felt  that  he  had  a  new  and  larger  centre,  and  was 
in  close  relationship  with  a  wider  universe.  The 
mechanical  discoveries  of  Galileo  removed  deep- 
rooted  prejudices,  by  shewing  what  was  the  law 
according  to  .which  bodies  tend  to  the  earth. 
But  the  greatest  impulse  was  given  to  the  popular 
feeling,  when  the  recently  invented  magnifying 
glasses  were  directed  by  Galileo  towards  the  sky, 
and  shewed  that  the  planet  Jupiter  has  its  satel- 
lites, even  as  the  earth  has  its  moon.  The  new 
world  discovered  by  Columbus  was,  in  a  higher 
sense,  a  new  world  to  man's  intelhgence,  it  added 
more  to  man's  ideas  than  it  added  to  his  wealth 
or  his  possessions.  The  very  common  people 
could  no  longer  look  on  the  earth  as  a  lump  of 
stone  and  clay,  with  a  flat  but  variegated  surface, 
covered  so  far  with  water,  when  seamen  returned 
to  tell  how  they  had  actually  circumnavigated  our 
globe.     Order  was  introduced  into  the  wandering 


THE  UNIFORMITY  OF  NATTJRE.  17 

movements  of  the  planets,  when  Kepler  proved 
that  Mars  pursues  an  elUptic  path,  and  thus  gave 
us,  hy  consequence,  the  very  orbit  in  which  our 
earth  runs  in  space.  When  Newton  demonstrated 
that  the  moon  is  held  in  her  sphere  by  the  same 
power  as  draws  a  stone  to  the  ground,  men 
now  rose  in  their  conceptions  to  a  law  which 
embraces  and  binds  the  whole  material  world. 
Henceforth,  even  in  the  common  apprehension, 
those  spots  of  light  which  dot  the  sky  at  night 
became  enlarged  into  worlds, possibly  the  suns  and 
centres  of  other  worlds  each  as  large  as  our  earth. 
The  researches  which  followed  the  discovery  of 
Newton  shewed  that  gravitation  operates  far  as 
observation,  aided  by  the  telescope,  can  reach ;  and 
the  calculations  of  the  great  continental  mathe- 
maticians demonstrated  that  the  variations  in  the 
movements  of  the  bodies  of  the  solar  system  are 
periodical,  and  that  there  is  a  self- regulating 
arrangement  pervading  the  wdiole. 

Another  class  of  investigators  have  been 
strengthening  and  widening  our  conceptions  by 
inquiries  into  the  more  latent  forces  which  work 
on  earth,  and  which  seem  also  to  be  active  all 
throughout  the  mundane  sphere,  such  as  light, 
and  heat,  and  chemical  action,  and  electricity, 
and  galvanism,  and  magnetism.  It  cannot  be 
said  that  as  yet  we  kiiow  the  essential  nature  of 
any   of   these   forces,   but   we   have   discovered 

B 


1 8  MAN  DISCO  r BRING 

enough  about  them  to  be  quite  certain  that  they 
operate  universally,  and  operate  according  to  fixed 
laws.     Those  who  looked  on  thunder  as  in  a 
special  sense  the  voice  of  God,  and  on  the  light- 
ning as  the  minister  of  his  vengeance,  must  have 
had  their  feelings  somewhat  shocked  by  the  dis- 
covery of  Franklin  that  thunder  is  the  noise  made 
by  natural  forces,  quite  of  the  same  character  as 
those  which  act  everywhere  in   bodies  on  the 
earth's  surface,  and  that  the  lightning  is  so  far 
under  the  control  of  man  that  it  can  be  drawn 
from  the  heavens  by  a  kite.     The  doctrine  of  the 
correlation  of  the  physical  forces,  more  than  even 
that  of  universal  gravitation,  connects  eveiy  part 
of   nature    with    every   other,    in    a    thorough 
unity   of   action.       Sir  Humphrey  Davy   corre- 
lated the  chemical  and  electric  forces.     Oersted 
correlated  magnetism  and  electricity.     Faraday 
has    magnetised    a   ray   of    light,    and   illumi- 
nated a  stream  of  magnetism.     Late  discoveries 
correlate  all  the  physical  forces,  including  heat 
and  light,  and  mechanical  powers,  and  demon- 
strate that  they  are  related  even  to  the  vital  forces. 
By  an  appropriate  arrangement,  any  one  physical 
force  can  be  got  from  any  other;  and  the  amount 
of  any  one  which  can  be  derived  from  a  given 
amount  of  another  is  definite,  and  admits  of  de- 
finite expression.     As  light  is  one  of  these  forces, 
and  as  it  is  by  light  that  the  stars  are  revealed  to 


TEE  UNIFORMITY  OF  NATTIRE.  19 

US,  we  are  thus  made  to  discover  that  there  is  a 
unity  or  connection  offerees,  running  through  the 
whole  knowahle  creation,  to  the  most  distant  star 
which  the  farthest  seeing  telescope  has  disclosed. 
Such  discoveries  are  turnings  at  which  we  see 
new  aspects  of  old  and  familiar  ohjects;  openings 
through  which  we  get  views  of  far  distant  scenes ; 
elevations  from  which  we  descry  the  directions, 
tlie  bearings,  and  the  connections  of  tracts  of  the 
universe  which  were  before  regarded  as  divided, 
separated,  and  isplated. 

Researches  into  the  organic  portions  of  nature 
have  furnished  equally  beautiful  illustrations  of 
the  order,  and  the  unity  of  order,  in  creation. 
The  observations  of  naturalists,  the  dissections 
of  anatomists,  the  classifications  of  botanists  and 
zoologists,  shew  that  in  every  country,  every  plant 
and  every  animal,  and  every  organ  of  every  plant 
and  every  animal,  is  after  a  type  or  model,  and 
that  there  is  a  mutual  affinity  and  a  harmony 
among  organized  beings,  from  the  lowest  lichen 
up  to  the  highest  quadruped,  and  to  man  himself. 
It  has  been  shewn  that  the  whole  skeleton  of  the 
vertebrate  animal  is  made  up  of  a  series  of  seg- 
ments, which,  with  an  infinite  number  of  variations, 
are  yet  homot}^al ;  that  is,  of  the  same  general 
form.  It  has  been  shewn  that  all  the  parts  of 
the  flower  of  the  plant,  sepals,  petals,  stamens, 
and  pistils  are  after  the  model  of  the  leaf,  and 


so  MAN  LISCOrEBING 

it  can  be  shewn  that  there  is  a  homot}]pal  corre- 
spondence between  the  leaf  with  its  \^eins  or  ribs, 
and  the  branch  with  its  branchlets,  and  the  whole 
tree  with  its  ramifications.  These  discoveries 
make  the  animal  and  the  plant  a  unity  through- 
out. 

Geology,  the  younger,  does  for  time,  what  astro- 
nomy, the  elder  sister,  had  previously  done  for 
space ;  shewing  that  law  reigns  through  all  know- 
able  age^,  as  the  other  had  proven  that  it  rules 
through  all  knowable  places.  It  shews  us  the 
very  same  agencies  w^orking  from  the  remotest 
ages ;  tracts  of  country  widely  separated  from 
each  other,  raised  or  depressed  by  like  causes ; 
and  corresponding  or  homoeophyte  plants  and 
animals  appearing  on  regions  or  ages  far  re- 
moved from  one  another.  There  are  disputes 
as  to  whether  there  have  not  been  supernatural 
exercises  of  Divine  power  in  the  creation  of  new 
species  or  orders  of  plants  and  animals ;  and  all 
believers  in  the  Word  of  God,  and  most  of  those 
who  have  studied  the  psychological  nature  of  the 
human  soul,  maintain  that  there  must  have  been 
a  special  creative  act  when  man  appeared  on  the 
scene,  but  all  acknowledge  that  physical  causes 
operated  on  our  earth,  millions  of  ages  ago,  as 
they  now  do,  and  that  on  the  j)lants  or  animals 
coming  upon  the  stage,  they  are  of  the  same  fun- 
damental types  as  those  now  on  our  globe,  and 


THE  UNIFORMITY  OF  NATURE.  3  I 

that  tliey  lived,  and  propagated  tlieir  kind,  and 
died,  as  they  do  in  our  epoch. 

These  are  the  views  entertained  hy  all  edu- 
cated men  in  our  day,  and  for  the  professed 
defender  of  religion  to  set  himself  in  opposition 
to  tliem,  would  only  he  to  injure  the  cause  which 
he  is  seeking  to  henelit.  It  is  quite  as  possible 
for  those  who  adopt  and  cherish  these  concep- 
tions to  he  religious,  as  for  those  who  have  more 
contracted  ideas  and  convictions  as  to  natural 
law.  It  may  he  all  true  that  they  have  difficul- 
ties and  temptations  to  contend  against ;  hut 
these  will  be  found  to  have  their  seat  and  their 
strength  in  the  ungodliness  of  tire  heart,  which 
is  much  the  same  in  all  ages ;  and  though  they 
may  have  taken  a  somewhat  different  form  in 
this  epoch  of  advanced  physical  knowledge,  I 
doubt  much  whether  they  are  greater  and  more 
formidable  than  those  which  have  beset  thinking 
minds  in  all  times.  It  is  surely  possible  for  those 
who  see  natural  law  every^vhere,  to  discover  at 
the  same  time  the  present  action  of  God.  We 
should  so  train  and  discipline  our  minds,  that 
we  see  God  acting  in  all  action,  and  living  in 
all  life.  I  believe  we  are  now  in  more  favour- 
able circumstances  than  the  heathen  ever  were, 
for  seeing  the  Creator  in  all  creation.  In  per- 
fect conformity  with  all  that  science  has  dis- 
covered, we  may  look  on  tlie  sun,  moon,  and 


2-2 


MAN  LISCOVEBIXG 


stars  as  the  symbols  of  his  majesty;  ^Ye  may 
still  hear  his  voice  in  the  thunder  and  see  his 
terrible  power  in  the  lightning.  The  gods  have 
disappeared ;  but  it  is  as  ghosts  flee  before  a 
brighter  light,  which  discloses  the  one  God  in 
all  his  greatness,  and  higher  beauties  in  him 
and  in  his  works.  God  may  still  be  regarded 
as  compelling  the  clouds  and  hurling  the  thun- 
derbolt, with  this  only  difference,  that  we  also 
look  upon  him  as  making  the  sun  to  shine,  and 
spanning  out  the  bow  of  heaven,  and  preserving 
us  in  health  in  the  midst  of  a  thousand  dangers. 
We  can  dispense  with  Neptune  ruling  the 
waves  and  Aeolus  the  winds,  when  we  have  one 
great  God  taking  care  of  all,  and  making  them 
work  in  harmony.  We  no  longer  need  Phoebus 
and  his  chariot  and  his  coursers  to  convey  the 
sun  ;  we  have  a  better  provision  for  his  fulfilling 
his  course,  in  the  laws  and  arrangements  of  the 
mundane  system.  It  may  have  been  a  tem- 
porary disappointment  to  some,  but  should  have 
been  a  permanent  joy  to  all,  when  the  Naiads 
were  driven  from  the  rivers, — on  the  banks 
of  which  we  are  encouraged  to  seek,  and  may 
actually  find,  communion  with  the  one  living 
and  loving  God.  The  Cafi're,  after  becoming 
a  Christian,  may  still  see  God  as  the  rain- 
sender,  only  he  will  now  understand  and  believe 
that  he   does   not   send  rain  capriciously,  but 


TEE  UNIFORMITY  OF  NATURK  23 

according  to  an  ordained  plan,  and  that  the 
same  God  sends  all  other  blessings  as  well,  to 
call  for  til  our  gratitude  in  one  full  and,  swelling 
tide.  The  Hindoo  may  at  first  be  pained  when 
the  microscope  shews  him  that  he  is  devouring 
living  creatures  in  the  food  he  eats  and  the 
water  he  drinks ;  but  when  he  rises  to  more 
enhghtened  and  expanded  views,  he  will  be  glad 
and  grateful  to  think  that  God  has  filled  all 
nature,  air  and  earth,  woods  and  waters,  with 
beings  living  and  enjoying  life,  and  as  they  do  so, 
testifying  of  the  goodness  of  Him  who  hath  given 
tliem  all  their  enjoyments :  and  in  regard  to  his 
magnificent  river,  while  no  longer  permitted  to 
honour  it  as  a  god,  or  allowed  to  cast  his  aged 
mother  into  its  waters,  he  will  rejoice  to  look 
upon  it  as  it  flows  along  so  majestically,  and  dis- 
penses blessings  on  either  bank,  as  a  grand  sym- 
bol of  the  power  and  the  majesty  of  God.  By 
tlie  progress  of  science,  the  stars  are  driven  into 
more  distant  regions  of  space,  and  creation  into 
more  remote  ages  of  time ;  but  then  we  look  on 
the  stars  as  worlds,  and  as  centres  of  worlds, 
which  can  be  numbered  only  by  Him  who  made 
them,  and,  by  moving  back  the  beginning,  we 
leave  in  front  a  larger  space  for  the  varied 
evolutions  of  Divine  wisdom,  with  its  infinite 
resources.  Irregularities  and  anomalies  decrease 
and  at  last  disapjDear,  but  it  is  only  that  wonders 


24  MAN  DISCOVERING 

may  multiply  and  ever  become  more  wondrous. 
Chaos  is  driven  out  of  sight,  and  chance  has  no 
longer  a  place  in  which  it  can  work ;  and  all,  that 
law  may  universally  reigii,  with  a  living,  an 
all-wise,  and  all-gracious  God,  as  its  giver  and 
guardian.  He  who  discovers  God  as  acting  in 
natural  law  may  see  God  in  the  law  as  well  as 
in  the  action,  and  may  admire  not  only  the 
power  of  the  acts,  but  the  wisdom  of  their  mode 
of  action. 

After  all,  the  views  entertained  by  pious  and 
reflecting  minds  in  the  simpler,  and  again  in  the 
more  advanced  ages  or  stages  of  the  world,  do 
not  difler  so  widely  as  we  might  at  first  imagine. 
In  primitive  times,  the  observing  man  sees  sys- 
tem, and  he  sees  seeming  irregTilarities ;  and  the 
religious  man  ascribes  both  to  God.  In  the 
scientific  ages,  the  devout  man  observes  the  same 
two  classes  of  phenomena ; — he  perceives  mecha- 
nical law,  and  the  regular  successions  and  cycles 
of  events ;  but  he  discovers  also  that  there  is  an 
adaptation  of  one  agent  to  another,  and  of  one 
law  to  another,  whereby  God  can  secure  the  most 
minute  providential  occurrences,  at  times  in  uni- 
son with,  at  times  in  contradiction  to,  the  more 
direct  operation  of  the  uniformities  of  nature. 
He  discovers  the  difference  of  those  two,  as  the 
early  thinker  did,  with  this  difierence,  that  he 
observes,  what   the   uneducated   man   did   not, 


TEE  UNIFORMITY  OF  NATURE.  25 

tliat  both  are  within  the  natural  and  ordained 
system  of  God ;  but  with  this  far  more  important 
point  of  agreement,  that  he  recognizes  in  both, 
as  the  primitive  behever  also  did,  the  operation 
of  God,  fulfilling  his  purposes  of  unfathomable 
wisdom. 

We  must  return  to  this  subject. 


26 


IN  WHAT  THE  NATURAL 


CHAPTER  II. 

IN  WHAT  THE  NATUEAL  SYSTEM  CONSISTS, 

It  is  clear  that  nature  is  a  system,  that  is,  a 
regulated  structure.  Let  us  endeavour  to  find 
out  the  elements  of  which  it  is  composed.  So 
far  as  man  can  rise  to  a  reasonable  opinion  on 
so  vast  and  complicated  a  subject,  they  seem  to 
consist  of  a  number  of  substances,  with  their 
powers  or  qualities,  of  a  distribution  of  them  in 
space,  and  with  time  for  them  to  act  in.  These 
substances  have  a-  power  of  acting  according  to 
their  properties;  and  being  placed  in  a  certain 
relation  to  each  other,  they  begin  to  act;  motions, 
changes,  and  new  distributions  follow.  Thus,  as 
things  are  so  constituted  that  matter  attracts  mat- 
ter, certain  bodies  are  drawn  towards  each  other, 
while  others  are  driven  farther  away,  by  reason 
of  the  more  powerful  attraction  of  one  or  more  of 
them  towards  a  larger  body.  Again,  certain  sub- 
stances combine  chemically  by  their  mutual 
affinity,  while  others  are  decomposed  in  conse- 
quence of  the  tendency  of  one  of  the  elements  to 
combine  with  an  adjacent  substance.    This  actual 


SYSTEM  CONSISTS.  27 

structure  of  the  system  is  determined  by  the 
number  of  the  substances,  by  the  nature  of  their 
quahties,  by  the  mutual  relation  of  their  rule  of 
action,  and  by  the  arrangement  and  collocation 
of  the  objects.  The  present  state  of  the  universe 
is  the  issue  of  these  agents,  dispositions,  and 
actions,  all  of  which  are  ascribed  by  the  pious 
man  to  God. 

What  the  ordinary  observer  sees,  what  we  all 
see  prima  facie  in  nature,  is  not  the  ultimate 
elements  or  original  structure,  but  a  derivative 
order,  the  result  of  arrangement  and  operation. 
The  skeleton  of  the  body  is  hid  from  our 
view  by  a  filling  up,  a  covering,  and  clothing — 
far  more  grateful  to  us  in  their  rounded 
forms  and  surface  colouring ;  and  w^e  can  dis- 
cover the  bones  and  ribs,  the  moving  and  vital 
organs,  only  by  an  inspection  below  the  surface, 
by  a,  sharp  and  penetrating  dissection.  Thus,  by 
a  very  simple  observation,  we  can  discern  the 
alternation  of  day  and  night  and  the  revolu- 
tion of  the  seasons  ;  but  these  flow  from  the 
motions  and  mutual  adaptations  of  the  earth  and 
heavenly  bodies,  which  were  not  found  out 
till  astronomy  had  made  considerable  progress 
through  long  ages  of  patient  observation.  It  is 
easy  to  discover  the  general  order  according  to 
which  grain  springs  and  animals  grow,  but  to 
determine   the    precise    mechanical,    chemical, 


28 


IN  WHAT  THE  NATURAL 


electric,  and  vital  properties  according  to  which 
the  organism  germinates  and  is  matured,  has 
been  found  by  science  to  be  a  vastly  more  diffi- 
cult undertaking.  Science  must  ever  commence 
with  the  observation  of  phenomena,  that  is,  of 
individual  facts  as  they  appear,  and  it  would  rise 
to  the  laws  of  phenomena,  which  it  does  by 
generalizing  the  appearances  that  present  them- 
selves. It  would  thence  strive  after  the  discovery 
of  the  elementary  objects  in  nature,  and  of  their 
original  forces  or  properties.  It  may  be  doubted 
wiiether  even  the  most  advanced  .science  has 
succeeded  in  reaching  this  knowledge  in  any  one 
department  of  nature.  It  cannot  be  proven  that 
we  have  discovered  the  original  constitution  of 
any  one  body, — that  even  oxygen  and  hydrogen 
are  certainly  indecomposable  elements.  It  is  dis- 
puted whether  the  law  of  chemical  equivalents 
is  an  original  law  of  elective  affinity,  or  results, 
as  Dalton  thought,  from  the  size  and  form  of  the 
primary  atoms.  Some  maintain  that  even  gra^d- 
tation  is  not  an  ultimate  law  of  matter,  and  that 
it  may  possibly  be  generated  by  some  other  and 
wider  and  simpler  force.  The  discovery  of  the 
primary  nature,  qualities,  and  constitution  of  sub- 
stances may  be,  or  quite  as  possibly  may  not  be, 
within  the  grasp  of  human  investigation.  Still, 
it  is  the  polestar  which  the  scientific  navigator 
never  reaches,  but  which  he  sets  before  him,  to 


SYSTEM  CONSISTS.  29 

guide  him  in  the  direction  he  would  take  among 
these  moving  elements  which  he  would  make  to 
fulfil  his  j^urposes. 

We  are  ever  hearing,  in  these  times,  of  the 
order  of  nature,  and  of  the  uniformities  of  nature, 
and  of  the  laws  of  nature.  The  Rev.  Baden 
Powell,  in  particular,  is  ever  referring  in  all  his 
works  to  the  "  principle  of  order,"  to  the  "  grand 
principles  of  law,"  to  "  law  pervading  nature,"  to 
tlie  ^'  chain  of  universal  causation,"  to  the  "  in- 
variahle  universal  system  of  physical  order  and 
law."  But  no  where  has  he  entered  upon  a 
searching  analysis,  or  given  an  exact  statement 
of  what  is  involved  in  these  very  wide,  hut  not 
very  definite  expressions ;  and  the  consequence 
is,  that  he  is  ever  making  rash  and  unwarranted 
assertions  as  to  the  nature  and  extent  of  phy- 
sical law.  If  we  would  understand  precisely  what 
the  natural  system  is,  we  must  look  carefully  into 
its  structure.  It  will  he  found  to  comprehend 
the  following  parts : — 

] .  Every  suhstance  in  nature  is  endowed  with 
certain  properties,  original  or  derived.  Thus,  the 
soul  is  possessed  of  powers  of  consciousness,  of 
sense-perception,  and  feeling.  Bodies  continue 
in  the  state  in  which  they  happen  to  he,  whether 
this  be  motion  or  rest,  unless  they  he  influenced 
by  powers  ah  extra ;  all  bodies  attract  each  other 
inversely  according  to  the  square  of  the  distance ; 


30  IX  WHAT  THE  NATURAL 

the  elements  combine  according  to  definite  pro- 
portions ;  light  is  propagated  by  vibrations ;  ac- 
tion is  equal  and  opposite  to  reaction  ;  in  polar 
forces,  like  repels  hke,  and  attracts  unlike  ; — 
tliese  are  samples  of  properties  which  may  be 
simple  or  may  be  complex,  but  are,  at  all  events, 
natural  properties.  These  properties  consist 
essentially  in  tendencies — not  in  acts,  but  tenden- 
cies to  act,  on  the  needful  conditions  being  sup- 
plied. Thus,  oxygen  has  the  tendency  to  com- 
bine with  hydrogen,  and  does  combine  with  it, 
when  the  hydrogen  is  presented  in  the  proper 
mode.  Thus,  it  is  the  tendency  of  fire  to  burn 
when  fuel  is  presented,  and  the  tendency  of  a  dead 
animal  body  to  decay.  It  will  be  shewn,  as  we 
advance,  that  this  tendency  is  never,  properly 
speaking,  interfered  with  in  any  of  the  miracles 
of  Scripture.  But  our  present  aim  is  simply  to 
bring  out  what  is  in  the  cosmical  system. 

2.  The  substances  and  their  properties  are 
correlated  and  distributed  so  as  to  produce  a 
general  and  an  obvious  order.  It  will  be  shewn  in 
a  succeeding  Chapter,  that  they  are  so  adjusted 
as  also  to  produce  individual  events,  having  an 
important  bearing  upon  human  character  and 
human  destiny.  But  our  present  concern  is 
more  especially  with  the  order  and  uniformity  of 
nature.  These  are  effected  by  the  arrangement 
of  the  substances  with  these  properties,  so  as  to 


SYSTEM  CONSISTS.  31 

produce  here  a  contemporaneous  order,  and  there 
a  regular  succession  of  phenomena  which  can  he 
observed  for  scientific  and  for  practical  purposes. 
Of  this  description  are  the  apparent  motions  of  the 
sun,  moon,  and  stars  in  the  heavens,  the  seasons 
for  sowing  and  planting,  for  reaping  and  gather- 
ing in  fruit,  the   stages  in  the  hfe  of  the  plant, 
and  a  hundred  other  periodical  laws  which  human 
beings  can  observe  more  or  less  easily,  by  science 
or  without  science,  and  to  which  they  can  accom- 
modate themselves,  and,  as  they  do  so,   secure 
the  blessings  which  nature  has  provided.     All 
this  order  arises  from  arrangements  among  the 
substances  with  their  powers.     With  other  dis- 
tributions and  collocations  of  natural  agents  there 
might  be  no  general  laws,  or  the  general  laws 
would  be  different.     The  actually  existing  laws 
are  admirably   adapted   to   the    constitution   of 
man; — to  his  intellectual  powers,  which  delight 
to  discover  class  and  cause,  and  the  relations  of 
means  and  end,  and  also  to  his  practical  con- 
venience, as  enabling  him  to  anticipate  the  future 
from  his  experience  of  the  past.   It  is  very  conceiv- 
able that  these  laws  may  be  in  themselves  an  end 
contemplated  by  God,  and  pleasing  to  him  as  he 
surveys  them.    It  is  certain  that  they  are  a  means 
towards  a  farther  end,  a  means  of  making  crea- 
tion intelligible  to  the  intelligent  creature,  and 
capable    of  being  used  for  practical  purposes. 


32  IN  WHAT  THE  NATURAL 

Miracles,  we  shall  see,  are,  in  a  sense,  an  inter- 
ference with  these  laws.  They  fulfil  their  end, 
they  draw  the  attention  of  spectators,  they 
become  "wonders"  and  "  signs,"  and  they  attest 
a  supernatural  revelation,  because  they  do  not 
fall  in  with  natural  laws.  But  supernatural 
occurrences  may  (it  will  be  shewn  that  in  fact 
they  do)  take  the  form  of  order  or  system,  and 
thus  fall  in  thoroughly  with  an  analogy  which 
binds  the  natural  and  supernatural,  as  the  two 
compartments  of  one-  great  system,  which  God 
has  constructed  for  the  accomplishment  of  his 
ends  of  awful  wisdom  and  bright  beneficence. 

3.  There  is  a  large  yet  limited  body  of  objects 
and  powers,  constituting  nature  and  performing 
its  functions.  I  believe  that  the  substances, 
with  their  properties,  have  all  been  created  by 
God,  and  also  that  all  their  natural  relations  and 
dispositions  have  been  instituted  by  him.  No 
human  power,  no  natural  power,  can  add  a  new 
substance  to  nature,  or  destroy  any  existing  sub- 
stance,— ^we  may  burn  the  hay  or  stubble,  but 
it  is  not  thereby  annihilated,  one  j)ortion  has 
gone  up  into  the  air  as  smoke,  another  has  gone 
down  to  the  earth  as  ashes.  Not  only  so,  it 
seems  to  be  established  by  the  latest  science, 
that  power  cannot  be  created  or  lost,  and  that 
the  sum  of  force  in  the  world  cannot  be  increased 
or  diminished,  by  natural  means.     We  may  trans- 


SYSTHJf  COXSISTS.  33 

form  one  natural  force  into  another,  or  make  one 
natural  force  produce  another ;  hut  in  all  the 
mutual  action  of  hodies,  the  sum  of  the  potential 
and  actual  energies  is  never  altered.  Not  only  is 
it  beyond  created  power  to  create  or  annihilate 
new  bodies  or  substances,  it  is  beyond  all  natural 
power  to  create  or  annihilate  force.  Nature  is  a 
self-comprised  system,  globe,  or  sphere  ;  in  se 
ipso  totiis,  teres,  atque  rotimdus. 

In  saying  so,  it  is  not  meant  to  assert  that  this 
sphere  has  no  points  of  contact  or  relationship 
with  other  compartments  of  creation,  and  still 
less,  that  it  has  no  dejDendence  on  a  higher  and 
a  supernatural  power.  All  that  we  maintain  is, 
that  it  has  a  number  of  agencies  which,  in  their 
totality,  combination,  and  action,  constitute  the 
system  of  nature.  A  miracle,  we  shall  see,  does 
imply  the  interposition  of  a  power  beyond  this 
mundane  sphere.  It  serves  its  end,  because  it 
is  the  effect  of  a  supernatural  cause. 

But,  meanwhile,  let  us  understand  precisely 
what  is  meant  when  it  is  said,  that  nature  is  a 
self-contained  system.  Let  us  not  suppose  that 
it  has  been  proven  that  it  needs  nothing  to  sup- 
port it,  and  that  it  will  go  on  for  ever  if  left  to 
itself.  The  geologist,  in  his  diggings,  has  gone  a 
httle  beneath  the  surface,  but  has  not  reached 
tlie  bottom  in  his  explorations  ;  he  has  gone  back 
many  ages,  but  has  not  reached  the  beginning, 

c 


34 


m  WHAT  TEE  NATURAL 


which  ever  retreats  before  him.  The  astronomer 
has  penetrated  to  great  distances,  but  he  has  not 
reached  the  outside, — he  is  just  impressed  the 
more  with  the  vast  circumambient  region  into 
which  his  telescope  cannot  penetrate.  Science,  in 
all  its  explorings,  knows  not  when  the  beginning 
was,  nor  when  the  end  shall  be ;  knows  not  where 
the  centre  is,  nor  where  the  circumference  is, — if 
indeed  there  be  a  circumference.  This  knowable 
world,  however  large  and  complete,  is  not,  after 
all,  the  universe,  but  only  a  part  of  it ;  whether 
we  follow  it  behind  or  before,  above  or  beneath, 
on  the  right  side  or  the  left,  it  is  seen  to  be  broken 
off;  beginning  we  know  not  when,  ending  we 
know  not  where,  but  certainly  not  when  and 
where  our  vision  fails ;  it  looks  hung  from  above, 
and  resting  below,  on  nothing  discoverable  by 
physical  science.  There  is  clear  evidence  that 
things  have  not  always  been  as  they  now  are  : 
there  was  a  time,  for  example,  when  man  was 
not  on  the  earth ;  an  earlier  time,  when  there 
were  no  animals  on  the  globe.  There  is  no  evi- 
dence that  there  are  physical  agencies  in  the 
world  which  would  keep  it  existing  for  ever. 
The  continental  mathematicians  of  last  century 
thought  they  had  gone  a  step  beyond  Sir  Isaac 
Newton,  and  demonstrated  that,  according  to 
laws  now  in  existence,  the  machine  would  go  on 
through   all   eternity,  without   requiring   to   be 


SYSTEM  CONSISTS.  35 

wound  up,  or  receiving  any  aid  from  without. 
All  that  they  proved  was,  that  there  is  a  heautiful 
self-adjusting  or  self- regulating  arrangement  in 
tlie  solar  system,  which  secures  that  the  ohvious 
variations  of  the  motions  of  the  planetary  hodies 
are  periodical.  Later  inquiry  has  sheAvn,  that 
there  are  agencies  now  operating  which  must,  in 
the  end,  dissipate  the  whole  existing  order  of 
things ;  and  the  most  advanced  science  has  dis- 
covered no  natural  means  of  counteracting  the 
destructive  tendency.  The  following  are  the 
conclusions  drawn  hy  Professor  W.  Thomson  : — 
*'  1.  There  is  at  present,  in  the  material  world,  a 
universal  tendency  to  the  dissipation  of  mecha- 
nical energy.  2.  Any  restoration  of  mechanical 
energy,  without  more  than  equivalent  dissipation, 
is  impossible  in  inanimate  material  processes, 
and  is  probably  never  effected  by  means  of  orga- 
nized matter,  either  endowed  with  vegetable  life, 
or  subjected  to  the  will  of  an  animated  creature. 
3.  Within  a  finite  period  of  time  past,  the  earth 
must  have  been,  and  within  a  finite  period  of 
time  to  come,  the  earth  must  again  be,  unfit  for 
the  habitation  of  man  as  at  present  constituted, 
unless  operations  have  been,  or  are  to  be,  per- 
formed which  are  impossible  under  the  laws  to 
which  the  known  operations  going  on  at  present 
in  the  material  world  are  subject."  " 

*  Transactions  of  the  Eoyal  Society  of  Edinburgh,  1852. 


36  MENTAL  FRINCIPLES  INVOLVED 


CHAPTER    III. 


MENTAL  PRINCIPLES  INVOLVED  IN  OUR  CONVICTION 
AS  TO  THE  UNIFORMITY  OF  NATURE. 


Our  belief  in  the  uniformity  of  nature  is,  I  am 
persuaded,  the  result  of  a  large  and  long  ex- 
perience. It  does  not  seem  to  be  guaranteed  by 
any  native  or  necessary  principle.  There  are,  as 
I  think,  very  clear  tests  by  which  supposed  in- 
tuitive convictions  of  the  mind  may  be  tried. 
Intuitive  or  necessary  truths  are  all  self-evident ; 
they  are  seen  to  be  true  on  the  bare  inspection 
or  contemplation  of  the  objects.  They  are  also 
necessary ;  that  is,  they  carry  with  them  an 
irresistible  conviction  that  they  are  true  and  must 
be  true.  They  are,  farther,  catholic  or  universal ; 
that  is,  they  are  entertained  by  all  men,  on  their 
minds  being  fairly  directed  to  the  objects.  But  our 
conviction  as  to  the  unity  or  uniformity  of  nature 
cannot  stand  these  tests.  It  is  not  a  self-evident 
truth  ;  men  cannot,  on  the  bare  contemplation  of 
the  notions  or  terms,  and  apart  from  a  course  of 
experience  and  the  gathering  of  facts,  declare 
that  law  reigns  over  all  objects  in  nature.     It  is 


IN  OUR  CONVICTION.  37 

not  necessary,  it  is  certainly  not  universal ;  for^ 
in  fact,  the  unscientific  and  the  unlettered,  who 
constitute  the  great  bulk  of  mankind,  are  igno- 
rant of  it,  and  a  vast  number,  were  some  one  to 
propound  the  doctrine  to  them,  would  declare 
that  it  cannot  be  true,  for  that  they  see  constant 
interpositions  of  supra-mundane  agencies.  The 
conviction  is  entertained  steadily,  and  in  regard 
to  the  whole  of  nature,  by  those  only  who  have 
had  the  advantage  of  a  scientific  culture,  by 
which,  or  by  the  literature  in  connection  with  it, 
they  have  been  put  in  possession  of  the  results 
of  a  very  wide  induction  of  facts. 

Still  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  there  are 
native  and  original  principles  of  the  mind  which 
incline  us  to  look  for,  though  they  do  not  compel 
us,  apart  from  experience,  to  believe  in,  law  and 
uniformity  in  nature." 

1.  There  is  an  intuition  which  leads  us  to 
look  on  every  object  falling  under  our  notice 
as  having  Being^  something  constituting  it  what 
it  is,  abiding  in  it,  and  going  with  it  wher- 
ever it  goes,  so  that  we  are  sure  that  if  we 
meet  with  that  object  again  it  will  have  this 
being  or  essential  nature,  which  must  ever  con- 


*  I  cannot,  in  this  treatise,  give  a  general  exposition  of  the  intuitive 
convictions  which  I  here  call  in  to  explain  our  inclination  to  seek  out 
for  uniformity,  and  so  I  must  refer  to  my  work  on  the  "  Intuitions 
of  the  Mind." 


38  MENTAL  FRIXCIPLES  INVOLVED 

tinue  with  it,  unless  destroyed  by  something 
ah  extra.  This  intuition,  commonly  unobserved, 
enters  into  all  our  knowledge  of  objects,  and 
makes  us  feel  that  we  are  surrounded,  not  with 
ideas,  images,  or  spectres,  but  with  solid  and 
abiding  realities.  It  is  to  be  carefully  noted, 
however,  that  this  intuition  does  not  vouch  for 
the  uniformity  of  nature.  We  have  an  intuition 
which  says  that  every  object  must  retain  its 
being,  unless  changed  by  an  external  cause,  but 
w^e  have  no  intuitive  means  of  knowing,  as  to  any 
given  object,  whether  it  is  the  same  as  we  met 
with  before.  We  have  to  determine  this  by  ap- 
pearances, and  by  experiential  rules  of  evidence. 
But,  in  forming  our  judgment,  we  may  be  mis- 
taken, and,  in  fact,  are  often  mistaken.  The  child 
frequently  looks  on  a  stranger,  seen  at  some  dis- 
tance, as  its  father  or  mother ;  and  all  our  lives 
we  may  be  tempted  to  find  identity  where  there 
is  only  similarity.  The  intuition  of  being,  or 
identity,  is,  however,  one  means,  not  exactly  of 
leading  us  to  a  conviction  of  the  uniformity  of  na- ' 
ture,  but  of  inducing  us  to  look  for  the  sameness 
of  objects  surrounding  us. 

2.  There  is  an  intuition  as  to  substance  and 
quality.  Tbis  joins  on  to  the  one  we  have  just 
been  looking  at,  but  goes  beyond  it.  We  regard 
every  substance  as  exercising  a  quality,  and  every 
quality  as  implying  a  substance.     We  are  thus 


IX  OUR  coNriCTio2{.  39 

led,  when  we  perceive  an  object,  to  anticipate  that 
it  will  have  some  kind  of  action,  and  we  are  thus 
carried  up  in  our  investigation  from  the  properties 
exercised  to  the  things  that  exercise  them.  All 
this  does  not  prove  that  there  is  ever  the  same 
group  of  objects  in  nature,  but  it  prompts  us  to 
observe  the  action  of  objects,  and  the  uniformity 
of  action  of  objects,  falling  under  our  notice,  and 
to  trace  all  action  up  to  substances. 

3.  There  is  the  intuition  which  leads  us,  when 
we  discover  an  effect  to  look  for  a  cause.  This 
intuition  connects  itself  with  the  other  two ;  but 
it  rises  to  farther  truth.  On  seeing  a  change,  we 
are  sure  that  there  has  been  an  agent  effecting 
it.  This  is  the  most  active  and  potent  of  all 
mental  principles  in  impelhng  us  to  the  scrutiny 
of  nature.  We  are  not  satisfied  with  the  im- 
mediate present,  we  are  sure  that  it  has  proceeded 
from  the  past ;  and  we  go  back  from  the  nearer 
to  the  more  remote  past,  and  we  are  not  contented 
till  we  reach  an  all-sufficient  cause  which  is  not 
itself  an  effect.  But  this  principle,  while  it  ever 
prompts  us  to  seek  for  the  causes  of  the  effects 
which  come  under  our  notice,  and  thus  leads  us 
to  discover  the  causal  connexions  in  nature,  does 
not  insist  that  all  things  proceed  according  to  an 
eternal  chain  of  physical  or  of  mundane  causa- 
tion. The  conviction  does,  indeed,  demand  a 
cause  for  every  occurrence,  but  would  be  quite 


40 


MENTAL  PEINCIPLES  INVOLVED 


satisfied  though   some    or   all  the  causes  were 
supernatural. 

4.  There  is  another  native  (not  necessary)  in- 
clination of  the  intellect  which  has  its  influence 
in  making  us  seek  for,  and  in  the  end  discover, 
the  uniformity  of  nature, — it  is  the  tendency  to 
perceive  resemblances.  We  love  to  detect  like- 
nesses of  every  kind,  and  by  means  of  them  to 
bring  the  multifarious  objects  around  us  into 
classes,  into  species,  genera  and  orders,  with  due 
ordination  and  subordination.  I  do  not  look 
upon  this  intellectual  impulse  of  the  mind  as 
being  of  the  nature  of  a  principle  of  reason,  or 
an  intuition  guaranteeing  necessary  truth.  It 
is  merely  a  native  talent,  taste,  and  disposition, 
tending  ever  to  act,  and  in  doing  so,  to  seek  out 
its  appropriate  objects,  that  is,  resemblances  and 
affinities^  of  every  kind,  and  thus  connect  all 
nature  by  analogies,  and  bring  all  its  objects 
into  groups.  All  this  does  not  prove  that 
nature  is  uniform,  it  simply  prompts  us  to  seek 
out  for  the  uniformities  that  exist.  It  is  only 
on  actually  observing  the  analogies  of  nature, 
that  we  know  them  to  exist;  and  the  internal 
inclination  does  not  guarantee  their  existence 
beyond  the  objects  that  have  been  actually  ex- 
amined. This  same  mental  principle,  on  the 
discovery  being  made  of  supernatural  operations, 
will    delight   to    trace    analogies    between    the 


IN  OUR  CONVICTION. 


41 


natural  and  supernatural,  and  between  one  part 
of  the  supernatural  and  another, — and  we  shall 
discover  that  there  is  abundant  field  here  thrown 
open  for  the  exercise  of  the  faculty. 

These,  or  such  as  these — blended,  in  the  quick- 
ness of  mental  action,  as  colours  are  on  a  rapidly- 
circulating  body — seem  to  me  to  be  the  mentar 
principles  which  lead  us  to  seek  for  a  uniformity 
in  nature.  They  constitute  th^-t  instinct  to  which 
Thomas  Reid,  Dugald  Stew^art,  and-  others  of  the 
Scottish  metaphysicians  so  often  refer,  and  which 
they  seem  to  look  upon  as  a  simple  principle,  un- 
resolvable  into  any  other  elements,  whereas  I 
regard  it  as  the  combination  or  issue  of  seve- 
ral mental  intuitions,  each  inclining  the  mind  in 
the  same  direction.  It  is  to  be  specially  noted, 
that  no  one  of  these  mental  principles  of  itself 
authorizes  a  conviction  of  the  uniformity  of 
nature,  nor  do  they  together  sanction  any  such 
wide  conclusion  as  that  nature  has  nothing  but 
physical  or  mundane  law.  Nor  is  any  one  of 
them,  nor  are  the  whole  of  them,  inconsistent 
with  a  miracle.  We  may  regard  every  object  as 
having  permanent  being,  without  having  any  in- 
formation or  belief  as  to  how  many  objects  are 
operating  around  us,  or  as  to  whether  they  are 
wdthin  or  beyond  the  domains  of  nature.  We 
believe  that  substances  will  act,  according  to  their 
properties,  on  the  needful  conditions  being  sup- 


42  MENTAL  PEINCIPLES  INVOLVED 

plied ;  but  this  law  of  mind  says  nothing  as  to 
what  substances  are  at  work,  or  as  to  whether 
they  are  all  within  the  circle  of  mundane  agencies, 
or  whether  some  of  them  may  not  be  from  a  region 
beyond.     Every  effect  has  a  cause  ;  but  for  any- 
thing the  intuition  says  to  the  contrary,  the  causes 
of  the  effects  visible  to  us  might  be  found  quite 
as  readily  in  Divine  as  in  creative  agencies.     Our 
faculty  of  comparison  prompts  to  the  discovery 
of  likenesses,  but  it  is  observation  that  finds  out 
what  are  the   actual  analogies  in  the   Cosmos. 
All  that  these  intellectual  propensities  do  is  to 
instigate  us  to  seek  out  for  the  permanence,  the 
activity,  the  causal  connexions,  and  the  affinities 
that  exist  in  the  objects  pressing  themselves  on 
our  notice.     As  we  follow  them,  and  observe  the 
phenomena,  we  arrive  at  the  reasonable  conviction 
that  there  is  a  universal  system  of  natural  law. 
But  this  is  the  product  not  of  intuition  but  of  a 
lengthened   observation,   to    which,  indeed,  our 
intellectual  promptings  have  incited  us,  while  it 
is  experience  which  furnishes  the  true  ground  on 
which  the   belief  rests.     The   same   experience 
which  authorizes  the  conviction  must  determine 
the  extent  of  it,  and  the  limits  to  it.     As  it  is  by 
the   evidence  of  facts  that  we  reach  the  wide 
.  general  maxim,  that  there  is  uniformity  through- 
out nature,  so  we  may  also,  by  the  same  evidence 
of  facts,  reach  the  conviction  that  there  is  a  super- 


IN  OUR  CONVICTION.  43 

natural  power  operating  in  the  midst  of  the 
natural  system.  It  will  be  found,  indeed,  that  the 
very  same  intuitions  which  instigate  us  to  notice 
the  stability  and  the  correlations  of  nature,  also 
allure  and  prompt — indeed  compel — us  to  go  on 
to  a  belief  in  a  supernatural  power  and  activity. 
Our  intuition  as  to  being  is  not  satisfied  with 
dependent  being;  it  feels  that  it  has  not  got  a 
deep  enough  foundation  till  it  rests  on  indepen- 
dent being.  Our  intuition  as  to  substance  will 
go  down  till  it  reaches  self-existing  substance. 
Our  intuition  as  to  cause  insists  on  going  back 
to  the  Being  to  whom  emphatically  all  power 
belongeth ;  and  when  an  occurrence  is  discovered 
in  this  mundane  sphere,  beyond  the  capacity  of 
natural  agents,  it  demands  a  supernatural  power. 
Our  inclination  towards  analogies  does  instigate 
us  to  admire  the  wondrous  affinities  of  nature ; 
but  it  will  be  quite  as  interested  in  looking  into 
the  analogies  between  the  natural  and  spiritual, — 

"  And  what  if  earth 
Be  but  the  shadow  of  heaven,  and  things  therein 
Each  to  other  like,  more  than  on  earth  is  thought  ?" 

The  above  statement  brings  out,  I  believe, 
what  our  consciousness  reveals  of  our  actual 
mental  operations ;  and  it  accounts,  on  the  one 
hand,  for  that  inductive  propensity  which  ever 
incites  minds  of  higher  intellectual  calibre  to 


44  MENTAL  PRINCIPLES  INVOLVED. 

seek  for  the  uniformities  of  nature,  while  it  is 
quite  consistent  with  the  fact,  that  the  great 
body  of  mankind  have  ever  been  prone  to  seek 
for  supernatural  interpositions  amid  natural 
occurrences ;  and  it  certainly  shews  that  it  is 
vain  to  appeal  to  any  native  principle  of  the 
mind  as  authorizing  the  rash  assertion  that  a 
miracle  is  an  impossibility." 

*  Reid  says,  "  God  hath  implanted  in  human  minds  an  original  prin- 
ciple, by  which  we  believe  and  expect  the  continuance  of  the  course  of 
nature,  and  the  continuance  of  those  connections  which  we  have 
ohserved  in  time  past."  And  again,  "  Antecedently  to  all  reasoning, 
we  have,  hy  our  constitution,  an  anticipation  that  there  is  a  fixed  and 
steady  course  of  nature." — JForks  (Ham.  Ed.)  pp.  198,  199.  He  allows 
that  this  expectation  "  leads  us  often  into  mistakes,"  p.  199.  D. 
Stewart  represents  our  "  expectation  of  the  continuance  of  the  laws 
of  nature  "  as  "an  original  law  of  human  belief,"  and  seeks  to  explain 
by  it  "  our  conviction  of  the  permanent  and  independent  existence  of 
matter." — Phil.  Essays  {Works,  vol.  v.)  pp.  104 — 106.  I  greatly  doubt 
whether  the  child  or  savage  has  any  expectation  or  belief  about  a 
"  steady  course  of  nature  "  or  "  laws  of  nature."  It  has  merely  cer- 
tain tendencies  which  make  it  look  out  for  constancy  and  law,  whether 
in  nature  or  beyond  it. 


HOW  MUCH  IS  CONTAINED  IN  THE  NATURAL.      45 


CHAPTER  lY. 

HOW  MUCH  IS  CONTAINED  IN  THE  NATUEAL. 

In  the  present  day  tliere  is  a  constant  reference 
to  nature  or  natural  law.  But  those  who  make 
the  most  frequent  appeals  to  it  generally  take  a 
very  limited  view  after  all,  meaning  by  it  merely 
mechanical,  or,  at  the  utmost,  physical  law, — thus 
contemplating  only  one  of  its  many  mansions. 
Let  us  comprehend  and  thoroughly  realise  the 
extent  of  the  natural. 

I,  Let  us  observe  the  extent  of  the  Physical. 

1.  The  natural  undoubtedly  includes  Order. 
It  is  the  aspect  of  it  most  frequently  dwelt  upon 
in  these  times.  In  particular,  it  was  the  feature 
habitually  and  exclusively  viewed  by  Mr.  B. 
Powell,  who  seems^  in  the  end,  almost  to  have 
identified  order  with  God;  thus  he  speaks  of  the 
"  great  principle  of  physical  order,  and  its  conse- 
quences, as  the  indication  of,  or  rather  as  sy- 
nonvmous  with,  reason  and  mind  in  the  natural 
world.""  By  all  means  let  us  labour  to  discover 
the  order  in  the  physical  world ;  and,  as  we  do  so, 

*  Order  of  Nature,  p.  242. 


46  HOW  MUCH  IS  CONTAINED 

let  US  cleYOutly  look  upon  it  as  the  expression  of 
intelligence.  But  the  order  of  nature,  least  of  all 
the  "  physical  order/'  is  not  synonymous  with 
"reason  and  mind,"  it  is  merely  an  indication 
of  them  ;  and  the  •'  reason "  always  resides  in 
another  sphere, — it  resides  in  "  mind," — that  is, 
in  the  Divine  Mind.  Mr.  Powell  is  ever  represent- 
ing order  as  the  proof,  and  the  sole  proof  in  the 
world,  of  inteUigence.  But,  amid  all  his  dog- 
matical assertions,  and  wearisome  repetition  of 
assertion,  we  look  in  vain  for  the  ground  or 
principle  on  which  he  argues  inteUigence  from 
physical  order,  and  we  are  left  in  ignorance  as 
to  whether  he  proceeds  upon  intuition  or  experi- 
ence, on  a  mental  law  or  an  external  observational 
law,  or  on  what  else.  I  am  inclined  to  look  on 
order  as  the  evidence  of  intelligence,  because  it 
is  an  evidence  of  design,  and  that  it  is  an  evi- 
dence of  design,  because  the  result  of  arrange- 
ment contemplating  a  wise  and  beneficent  end. 
Certain  it  is  that  the  order  of  nature  is  the  issue 
of  an  assortment  among  very  numerous  and 
diversified  materials  and  agencies.  What  a  vast 
variety,  within  the  Cosmos,  of  separate  sub- 
stances, animate  and  inanimate,  material  and 
mental,  each  with  its  distinct  powers  and  rules 
of  action.  The  order  of  nature  is  due  to  no  one 
of  these  taken  by  itself.  Take  the  forces  which 
may   seem   the   most   strictly   and   numerically 


IN  THE  NATURAL.  47 

regulated — take  the  law  of  gravitation  and  the 
hiw  of  the  chemical  affinities  of  hodies — they  are 
only  single  elements  of  the  order  which  reigns 
in  the  compartments  in  which  they  are  found. 
The  law  of  gravitation  might  draw  all  hodies  to 
one  great  centre,  and  bring  all  motion  to  a  dead 
halt,  were  there  not  an  adjustment  of  centrifugal 
and  centripetal  forces.  Chemical  attractions, 
among  bodies  incongruously  huddled,  might  give 
play  only  to  a  war  of  jarring  elements,  or  settle 
into  lumpish  compounds  standing  in  our  way  as 
an  incumbrance.  Order  in  the  solar  system, 
order  in  the  earth,  order  in  the  structure  of  the 
inorganic  materials  in  our  world,  order  in  the 
stems  and  flowers  of  plants,  order  in  the  organs 
and  movements  of  animals,  are  all  the  result 
of  arrangements  made  by  a  power  without  and 
above  the  material  forces.  Just  as  the  figures  in 
damask  or  in  the  carpet  are  made  to  come  out 
from  threads  skilfully  predisposed  and  then  in- 
tertwined, so  do  the  beautiful  forms  of  plants  and 
animals — the  elegant  conical  forms,  for  example, 
of  pines  and  their  fruit — the  lovely  shapes  and 
colours  of  the  corolla  of  flowers — the  fine  propor- 
tions and  graceful  movements  of  man  and  woman 
— all  proceed  from  a  skilful  adjustment  among 
rude  materials.  It  is  because  order  is  the  result 
of  arrangement  that  I  am  inclined  to  regard  it 
as  an  evidence  of  intelligence. 


48  HOW  MUCH  IS  CONTAINED 

2.  This  order,  as  it  results  from  means  ap- 
pointed by  God,  so  it  is  also  a  Mean  toivards  an 
End  contemplated  by  God.  In  saying  so,  I  do 
not  mean  to  say  that  this  order  may  not  be  in 
itself  an  end.  It  may  be,  that  just  because  it 
is  order  it  is  grateful  to  the  high  wisdom  of  Him 
who  delights  in  all  his  works.  It  may  be,  that  it 
is  also  pleasing  to  the  contemplative  mind  of 
angelic  beings,  as  they  look  down  upon  its  pro- 
portions and  harmonies  from  their  heights  above 
us.  But  whatever  else  it  may  be,  it  is  also  a 
mean  towards  ends  of  very  high  importance. 
In  saying  so,  I  do  not  refer  to  relations  which  it 
may  have  to  other  and  unseen  worlds.  It  is 
clear  that  it  is  the  order  in  our  earth  which 
constitutes  it  a  compartment  of  the  wide  Cosmos 
known  to  us ;  and  it  may  be,  that  it  is  the  order 
in  our  Cosmos  which  makes  it  fit  into  a  yet 
larger  system  of  which  ours  is  but  a  part.  All 
this  may  or  may  not  be, — we  must  so  speak 
because  the  theme  lies  in  a  region  beyond  the 
clouds  which  ever  bound  our  vision.  But  there 
is  an  end  served  by  the  order  in  our  world  of 
which  we  can  speak  with  confidence ;  for  it 
comes  every  where,  and  alluringly,  and  pres- 
singly,  under  our  view.  The  order  has  certainly 
and  obviously  a  special  respect  to  man.  His 
intelligence  is  so  constructed  that  he  has  plea- 
sure in  contemplating  it,  and  is  ever  impelled  to 


IN  THE  NATURAL.  49 

seek  out  for  it,  and  he  experiences  a  Ligli  delight 
in  tracing  the  elements  in  the  compounds,  in 
grouping  the  individuals  into  classes,  and  in 
detecting  the  causal  links  by  which  the  present 
hangs  on  the  past,  and  has  dependencies  in  the 
future.  Not  only  so,  it  is  because  there  are  estab- 
lished order  and  law  in  the  Cosmos,  that  man  can 
accommodate  himself  practically  to  the  position 
in  which  he  is  placed,  take  steps  to  draw  in  the 
good  and  avert  the  evil,  and  exercise  an  in- 
fluence on  coming  events.  It  is  because  there 
are  day  and  night  in  orderly  succession  that  he 
knows  how  to  plan  his  periocls  of  rest  and 
labour ;  it  is  because  there  is  a  regular  succes- 
sion of  seasons  that  he  knows  when  to  sow  his 
crops;  it  is  because  seed  bears  fruit  after  its 
kind  that  he  knows  what  sort  of  crop  to  sow; 
it  is  because  the  laws  of  chemical  composition 
and  decomposition  are  invariable  that  he  con- 
tinues to  partake  of  food  in  the  confidence  that 
it  will  nourish  him  ;  it  is  because  there  are  laws 
of  political  economy  that  the  statesman  can  add 
to  a  nation's  w^ealth ;  it  is  because  there  are  laws 
of  mind  and  character  that  the  wise  and  strong 
man  can  sway  for  good  or  evil  the  opinions  and 
morals  of  the  men  of  his  own  age,  and  transmit 
his  influence  to  the  generations  that  follow. 

3.  In  nature  there  is  Beauty  as  well  as  mecha- 
nical and  physical  law,     I  by  no  means  maintain 

D 


50  sow  MUCH  IS  CONTAINED 

tliat  the  phrase  beautiful,  can  he  apphecl  appro- 
priately to  every  object  in  our  world.  A  state  of 
things  in  which  everything  was  positively  lovely, 
would,  in  the  first  instance,  be  too  exciting,  and, 
in  the  end,  would  pall  upon  the  taste,  by  being 
too  luscious  and  luxurious.  I  believe  that  every 
object  in  the  Cosmos  is  useful,  it  is  suited  to  its 
place,  and  it  has  a  good  end  to  serve ;  but  it 
would  be  extravagance  to  affirm,  that  evei^y  sur- 
face of  clay  or  cloud  has  aesthetic  qualities.  It 
is  out  of  the  midst  of  the  more  ordinary  and 
commonplace  scenes  that  certain  objects  rise — 
as  plants  do  from  the  soil  of  the  earth,  as  damp 
vapours  are  lit  up  by  the  setting  sun,  as  moun- 
tains lift  up  their  heads  from  the  plains — to 
melt  and  soften  us  by  their  loveliness  of  form 
or  colour,  to  kindle  our  mind  and  our  eye  by 
their  sharp  and  vivid  outline,  or  to  awe  us  by 
their  huge  bulk,  or  dizzying  height,  or  irresis- 
tible power.  Persons  busied  with  the  more 
sordid  solicitudes  of  life  have  little  time,  except 
perhaps  in  a  quiet  evening  after  the  toils  of  the 
day  are  over,  to  spend  on  the  admiration  of 
beauty;  and,  in  fact,  they  have  little  relish  for  it 
except  in  its  more  obvious  forms — as  in  the 
flowing  stream,  in  the  grassy  slope,  the  fertile 
plain,  the  glowing  evening  sky,  or  the  face  and 
person  of  young  man  and  maiden  ;  but  as  mental 
cultivation    advances,   and   accumulated   wealth 


ly  TRE  NA  TURAL.  5 1 

leaves  leisure  for  quiet  observation  and  reflec- 
tion, the  taste  becomes  more  and  more  intense, 
and  takes  in  a  much  greater  sweep  of  things, 
and  it  is  found  that  there  are  objects  in  nature 
to  gratify  it, — in  sky  and  cloud,  in  mountain  and 
valley,  in  tree  and  flower,  in  animal  life  lower 
and  higher,  in  man  and  in  woman;  and  that 
there  are  persons  moved  to  produce  objects  of 
art  for  the  farther  gratification  and  elevation  of 
it, — in  music,  in  statues,  in  paintings,  and,  above 
all,  in  poems,  which  come  nearest  to  the  full 
symphonies  of  nature  without  us,  and  the  capacity 
of  the  taste  within.  It  would  be  for  the  benefit 
of  the  exclusive  observers  of  mechanical  law  to 
contemplate  this  feature  of  the  well-ordered 
Cosmos,  were  it  only  to  raise  them  to  something 
higher — as  music  and  poetry  are  often  made  the 
stimulus  wherewithal  to  raise  men  to  noble 
thoughts  and  sentiments.  They  should  observe 
that  these  very  mechanical  powers  are  often 
turned  by  God  and  man  to  the  production  of 
works  of  art,  which  lift  us  far  above  natural  law 
into  a  region  bordering  on  the  moral  and  spiritual, 
to  the  existence  of  which  they  testify,  and  to 
w4iich  they  are  meant  to  be  fit  ministers. 

4.  There  is  in  nature  a  Fitting  of  every  one 
object  and  power  to  every  other.  I  am  convinced 
that  there  is  a  prior  propriety  in  the  very  original 
constitution  of  the  objects  themselves,  and  of  the 


52 


EOW  MUCH  IS  CONTAINED 


powers  or  properties  with  which  they  are  endowed. 
I  argue  this  on  two  grounds.  One  is,  that,  so 
far  as  we  are  able  to  penetrate  into  the  ultimate 
constitution  of  the  powers  of  nature,  w^e  dis- 
cover— as  in  gravitation  and  chemical  affinities, 
and  the  dispositions  of  the  organs  of  plants — nu- 
merical relations  and  proportions  with  a  very 
profound  meaning.  The  other  is,  that  order  is 
seen  to  be  the  result  of  their  operation  in  actual 
nature,  and  it  is  not  easy  to  see  how  such  har- 
monies should  result  from  the  union  of  ma- 
terials in  themselves  altogether  discordant.  But 
whether  there  be  or  be  not  method  in  the  ori- 
ginal structure  of  the  substances  in  nature, 
whether  the  harmony  has  proceeded  from  con- 
cords or  from  discords,  it  is  quite  certain  that  it 
has  proceeded  from  an  arrangement  of  some  kind 
— for  even  melodies,  without  assortment,  will  not 
produce  harmonies  by  their  conjunction;  and 
so  we  are  constrained  to  recognise  superlative 
wisdom  in  the  accommodation  of  every  object 
to  every  other,  of  every  group  of  objects  to 
every  other,  of  every  system  of  groups  to  every 
other,  and  of  the  whole  to  every  part,  and  of 
every  part  to  the  whole.  The  actual  order  of 
nature  is  the  result,  we  have  seen,  of  these  con- 
formities, and  so  must  also  be  the  beauty  which 
consists  in  colour  and  form,  in  proportion  and 
harmony.     From  these  same  arrangements  pro- 


/xV  THE  NATURAL.  53 

ceed  other  benelicerit  characteristics  which  we 
are  now  to  consider. 

5.  In  nature  there  is  Final  Cause,  havino- 
respect  to  the  comfort  of  the  lower  animals  and 
of  man.  In  the  plant,  the  simple  material  ele- 
ments— the  oxygen,  hydrogen,  carbon  and  nitro- 
gen— are  made  to  correspond  with  one  another; 
and  the  external  stimuli  of  light  and  heat, 
moisture  and  food,  so  act  on  them  as  to  produce 
that  organic  structure  which  is  so  pleasing  to 
the  eye  of  intelligence,  and  is  made  in  its  growth 
and  fruit  to  furnish  such  nourishment  to  the 
animal  creation.  In  the  animal  frame,  hone  so 
fits  into  hone,  and  hone  is  so  adapted  to  attached 
muscle,  and  the  vital  organs  are  so  suited  to 
each  other  and  to  the  nerves  and  brain,  that 
the  organism  becomes  a  wondrous  unity,  in 
w^hich  every  part  has  a  function  and  subserves 
the  good  of  the  whole.  This  final  cause,  pervad- 
ing, as  it  does,  all  nature,  and  especially  every 
part  of  it  bearing  on  animal  comfort,  is  quite  as 
obvious  as  the  material  or  physical  cause.  Nor 
is  it  any  valid  objection  that,  as  we  know  every- 
thing only  partially  and  in  progress,  we  cannot 
be  prepared  to  pronounce  upon  the  purposes  of 
God.  I  give  no  credit  for  humility  to  those  who 
tell  us  that  it  would  be  presumptuous  in  them  to 
imagine  that  they  can  discover  any  of  the  de- 
signs of  an  infinite  God.     I  am  not  disposed  to 


54  sow  211' CE  IS  CONTAINED 

lavish  any  sympathy  on  those  who  tell  us,  with  a 
sigh,  that  they  are  so  sorry  that  they  cannot 
detect  any  special  end  in  events  which  seem  to 
move  on  like  a  stream  in  an  unhroken  flow.  It 
is  a  great  truth  that  we  know  hut  in  part ;  hut 
this  implies  that  we  do  know,  though  only  in 
part.  He  who  denies  this  consequence  is  logi- 
cally landing  himself  in  a  universal  scepticism, 
which  no  man  can  consistently  carry  out.  It  is 
not  required  that  we  should  profess  to  have 
"  found  out  the  work  which  God  worketh  from 
the  beginning  to  the  end,"  in  order  to  entitle  us 
consistently  to  affirm  that  we  see  so  much  of  the 
work  of  God  as  to  lead  us  to  adniiire  it  and  de- 
light in  it.  It  is  not  needful  that  we  should  be 
able  to  fathom  all  the  mysteries  of  nature,  in 
order  to  be  quite  sure  that  we  know  some  of  its 
laws,  and  somewhat  of  its  method.  Many  a  one 
who  does  not  comprehend  all  that  is  in  the 
Principia  of  Newton,  does  yet  rejoice  that  he  ap- 
prehends so  much  of  the  Newtonian  discoveries, 
and  can  appreciate  what  he  understands.  We 
who  are  uninitiated  should  not  attempt  to  guess 
at  all  that  is  transacted  in  our  great  mercantile 
houses,  which  trade  with  the  ends  of  the  earth, 
or  find  out  the  purpose  aimed  at  by  the  general 
in  all  his  military  movements,  or  by  the  Minis- 
terial Cabinet  in  all  its  counsels,  though  we  may, 
without   presumption,  venture   to   say   that  we 


ZlY  the  xatueal.  55 

see  some  of  the  means  employed,  and  some  of 
the  ends  accomphshed.  I  am  using  small  mat- 
ters to  illustrate  great  ones.  We  should  cer- 
tainl}^  never  pretend  to  he  ahle  to  find  out  all  the 
purposes  contemplated  by  God  in  any  one  of  his 
acts  and  agencies,  for  I  believe  that,  in  the  pleni- 
tude of  his  wisdom,  he  commonly  accomplishes  a 
great  variety  of  ends  by  one  and  the  same  means. 
"  Canst  thou  by  searching  find  out  God  ?  Canst 
thou  find  out  the  Almighty  unto  perfection?" 
"  Such  knowledge  is  too  wonderful  for  me ;  it  is 
high,  I  cannot  attain  unto  it."  Still  there  is  so 
much  that  we  can  know ;  it  is  meant  that  we 
know  it ;  it  is  thrown  open  to  us  freely  and  un- 
grudgingly, as  in  a  museum,  or  school,  or  garden, 
for  this  very  purpose.  "  The  secret  things  belong 
unto  the  Lord  our  God ;  but  those  things  which 
are  revealed  belong  unto  us  and  to  our  children." 
God's  works  are  throughout  a  manifestation  of 
God,  and  are,  so  far,  a  revelation  of  his  will. 
The  scientific  man  is  quite  certain  that  he  has 
discovered  laws ;  they  may  or  they  may  not  be 
ultimate  laws,  but  they  are  laws  ruling  in  nature, 
and  he  can  turn  them  to  practical  purposes. 
There  are  also  in  creation  special  ends  which  we 
can  discover,  and  this  without  professing  to  know 
all  the  counsels  of  God.  The  fountain  may  be 
high  up  in  mist  or  mountain  beyond  our  reach, 
and  the  ocean  into  which  the  waters  pour  them- 


56  sow  3IUCJ3:  IS  CONTAINED 

selves  may  be  unexplorable  in  its  vastness,  still 
we  know  so  much  of  the  stream  as  it  flows  past 
us,  or  as  we  float  on  its  bosom,  to  be  quite  sure 
that  we  see  uses  served  by  it,  and  know  the 
direction  in  which  it  runs.  I  have  really  no 
moral  tolerance  for  those  who  tell  you  that  they 
are  not  sure  whether  the  eye  were  made  for 
seeing,  or  the  ear  for  hearing,  or  the  hand  for 
grasping,  or  the  feet  for  walking,  or  the  ball  and 
socket  joint  at  the  shoulder  to  give  a  convenient 
and  easy  motion  to  the  arm. 

6.  Nature  throughout  has  a  Bespect  to  Man. 
All  objects  on  the  earth  minister  to  his  bodily 
wants,  and  are,  so  far,  subordinated  to  him. 
Geology  seems  to  shew  that  when  man  was 
about  to  come  on  the  scene,  there  are  plants, 
unknown  before,  which  make  their  appearance 
to  sustain  his  life,  and  contribute  to  his  enjoy- 
ment— such  as  wheat,  and  barley,  and  oats,  and 
rye,  and  Indian  corn,  and  millet,  and  rice,  and 
the  plants  which  yield  wine,  and  oil,  and  odours, 
as  well  as  most  of  those,  such  as  roses,  which  are 
covered  with  the  flowers  which  yield  him  such 
delight.  When  he  comes,  he  "has  dominion  over 
the  fish  of  the  sea,  and  over  the  fowl  of  the  air,  and 
over  every  living  thing  that  moveth  on  the  earth." 
As  he  uses  his  power,  his  intelligence  is  evoked 
and  strengthened ;  for,  if  he  would  earn  a  suste- 
nance, or  enjoy  the  full  blessings  of  life,  he  must 


ly  TEE  NATURAL.  57 

cultivate  the  soil,  and  tend  the  plants,  and  care 
for  the  lower  animals.  The  very  order  of  nature, 
we  have  seen,  is  adapted  to  his  contemplative 
intellect,  which  delights  to  resolve  the  complex 
structures  of  nature  into  their  ingredients,  to 
catch  the  chxsses  according  to  which  all  the 
ohjects  in  nature  are  arranged,  to  trace  the  causes 
and  comhinations  of  causes  from  which  all 
changes  proceed,  and  to  dwell  on  the  propor- 
tioned forms  and  harmonious  colours  which 
everywhere  draw  our  regards  towards  them.  If 
we  train  ourselves  to  look  on  physical  nature  as 
a  mean,  having  throughout  a  respect  to  man,  to 
his  happiness  and  elevation,  I  helieve  we  will  not 
be  disinclined  to  suppose  that  there  may  be  other 
and  supernatural  means  provided  to  further  the 
same  general  ends  of  beneficence  and  morality. 

And  here  it  will  be  necessary  to  remove  the 
impression,  that  because  there  are  other  pur- 
poses served  by  the  agencies  of  heaven  and 
earth,  we  are  no  longer  entitled  to  look  upon 
them  as  having  the  respect  which  our  forefathers 
fondly  imagined  them  to  have  towards  the  chil- 
dren of  men.  There  was  an  excuse,  they  allow, 
for  those  who  looked  on  the  earth  as  the  centre 
of  the  world,  when  they  supposed  that  the  hea- 
venly bodies  had  a  peculiar  reference  to  man ; 
but  it  is  said  to  be  absolutely  ludicrous  to 
entertain  any  such  notion,  now  that  we  know 


58 


irOJF  MUCH  IS  CONTAIXED 


that  the  earth  is  a  comparatively  small  body 
dangling  round  a  vastly  larger  one,  and  that  the 
stars  are  themselves  worlds  or  centres  of  worlds. 
But  I  maintain  that  all  this  is  the  conception, 
not  of  large,  hut  of  contracted  minds,  which 
look  upon  the  great  God  as  being  like  the  great 
man,  who  must  often  neglect  affairs  of  less 
importance  in  attending  to  matters  of  mighty 
moment.  It  would  be  a  most  unfortunate  nar- 
rowing of  a  boy's  idea  of  a  father's  love,  were 
some  one  to  persuade  him,  now  that  he  sees  that 
the  father  has  wide  cares  as  a  merchant,  or 
wider  cares  as  a  statesman,  that  one  so  burdened 
cannot  possibly  feel  so  deep  an  interest  in  his 
family  as  at  one  time  he  was  supposed  to  take. 
On  the  same  principle,  it  would  truly  be  a  lower- 
ing, instead  of  an  enlargement,  of  our  ideas  of 
God's  greatness,  were  we  tempted  to  believe 
that,  in  fulfilling  his  purposes  of  wisdom  towards 
these  other  worlds  we  have  come  in  sight  of,  he 
is  obliged  to  withdraw  his  special  regards  from 
his  intelligent  and  re^onsible  creatures  on  the 
earth.  Those  who  -would  rise  to  a  full  compre- 
hension of  God's  goodness,  and  of  his  greatness 
in  his  goodness,  must  learn  to  conceive  of  him, 
as  not  neglecting  the  part,  because  he  has  to 
take  care  of  the  mighty  whole,  and  as  making, 
in  the  riches  of  his  resources  and  in  the  might 
of  his  love,  as  full  a  provision  for  our  earth  and 


IN  THE  NATVEAL.  ^        59 

for  each  creature  on  it,  as  if  there  were  no  other 
workl  or  no  other  created  heing  in  the  universe. 
It  is  all  true  that  the  man  of  devout  spirit  is 
inclined  to  say,  "  When  I  consider  thy  heavens 
the  work  of  thy  fingers,  the  moon  and  the  stars 
which  thou  hast  ordained ;  what  is  man  that 
thou  art  mindful  of  him,  and  the  son  of  man 
that  thou  visitest  him."  But  while  he  is  amazed 
at  the  Divine  condescension,  he  does  not  douht 
that  condescension.  He  believes  that  the  hea- 
vens are  the  work  of  God's  finger,  and  tjiat  the 
stars  are  ordained  by  God ;  but  he  believes 
quite  as  firmly  that  God  is  mindful  of  the  chil- 
dren of  men,  and  graciously  visits  them.  God's 
greatness  is  seen  in  his  taking  care  of  the  little 
— as  we  reckon  it  in  our  littleness — equally  with 
the  great.  The  pansy,  no  doubt,  is  the  product 
of  wide  physiological  laws  which  have  relations 
to  many  interests ;  but  it  can  be  shewn  that,  by 
the  shape  it  has  been  made  to  take,  and  the 
harmonious  colours  of  yellow  and  purple  and 
white  which  come  out  on  its  corolla,  it  is  ex- 
quisitely suited  to  the  eye  and  to  the  tastes  of 
men.  The  sun  lightens  other  planets ;  but  it 
lightens  this  one  also  as  beneficently  as  if  it  had 
no  other  to  shine  on.  These  stars,  no  doubt, 
look  far  out  with  penetrating  eye  into  space  ;  but 
I  am  persuaded  that  every  unclouded  night  they 
look  down  with  benign  regard  upon  our  world. 


60 


HOW  MUCH  IS  CONTAINED 


7.  In  nature  there  is  a  Special  Providence.  In 
all  ages  mankind  have  been  inclined  to  believe 
not  only  in  general  law  but  in  particular  provi- 
sions which  have  a  respect  to  the  individual  man 
and  his  special  wants.  The  views  entertained, 
both  of  one  and  other  of  these,  by  men  of  con- 
tracted vision  and  limited  prospects,  have  been 
very  narrow,  and  their  opinions  of  the  relation 
of  the  one  to  the  other  have  commonly  been  very 
confused,  and  at  times  very  -erroneous.  Still, 
mankind  generally  have  risen  to  some  idea  of  a 
settled  system  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  certain 
dispositions  or  interventions  on  the  other;  and 
they  can  be  justified  in  believino-  in  the  ex- 
istence of  both.  I  maintain  that  advancing 
knowledge  has  not  set  aside  either  of  these.  I 
deny  that  in  throwing  open  larger  views  of  the 
general  order  it  has  made  it  necessary  for  us  to 
overlook  the  special  providence ;  for  while  God 
has  so  arranged  his  physical  agents,  that  general 
laws,  such  as  those  of  the  seasons  and  of  the 
stages  in  the  life  of  animated  beings,  every  where 
prevail,  and  prevail  for  the  good  of  man,  he  has 
also  so  disposed  them  that  by  their  combina- 
.tion  or  coincidence,  crossing  or  collision,  they 
produce  individual  incidents,  which  exercise  a 
mighty  influence  on  the  world  at  large,  or  which 
meet  the  state  and  the  wants  of  individual  men 
at  momentous  or  critical  times  in  their  history. 


IN  THE  NATUHAL.  61 

The  seasons  revolve  according  to  a  regular  sys- 
tem, but  in  the  very  midst  of  the  heat  of  sum- 
mer there  may  interpose, — and  this  by  the  pre- 
arrangements  of  nature, — a  storm  which  wrecks 
the  persons  or  fortunes  of  hundreds,  or  gives  a 
new  turn  to  the  wdiole  life  and  destiny  of  some 
individual.     There  is   an   average    life  for  man 
upon  the  earth,  but,  by  a  natural  disposition  of 
natural  agents,  the  child  which  has  nestled  itself 
in  the  w^armest  affections  of  a  parent's  love,  may 
have  its  life  nipped  in  the  bud;   or  the  youth, 
full  of  hope  and  activity,  may  have  all  his  energies 
for  ever  arrested,  and  his  fond  plans  finally  frus- 
trated by  unexpected,  but  not  unordained,  disease 
or  death ;  and  one  or  other  of  these  events  may 
come  home  wdth  very  peculiar  force  to  the  heart 
of  some  interested  individual,  and  have  a  greater 
influence  on  his  or  her  future  life  in  time  or 
eternity,   than   has   been   exercised   by   all   the 
more  orderly  events  on  wdiich  the  scientific  or 
philosophic  mind  is    so    apt   to   dwell.      By  all 
means  let  us  observe  the  order  in  nature,  for  it 
is  the  w^ork  of  God ;  but  as  w^e  do  so,  let  us  not 
overlook  the  mutual  fitting  of  objects  and  powders 
by  which  the  order  is  produced ;  and  let  us  also 
note  how^,  by  this  same  predisposition  of  law^s 
and  agents,  there  are  brought  about  individual 
occurrences  by  wdiich  a  mighty  power  is  exerted 
on  the  destinies  of  the  world  at  large,  or  of  par- 


62  HOW  MUCH  IS  CONTAINED 

ticular  persons ;  by  which  great  men  appear  on 
the  emergency  to  do  their  appropriate  work,  or 
by  which  great  tides  of  popuLar  feehng  are  raised 
up,  evidently  by  a  power  from  above  drawing 
them,  and  to  keep  the  shiggish  waters  of  our 
earth  from  stagnating ;  by  which  the  archtyrant 
is  cut  off  when  his  schemes  of  wickedness  were 
about  to  be  consummated;  by  which  the  poor 
man  has  his  wants  supphed  in  the  time  of  need ; 
by  which  the  guihy  is  detected,  as  by  hghtning 
flashing  out  and  glaring  upon  him  in  the  dark- 
ness as  he  did  the  deed;  by  which  the  falsely 
accused  has  his  character  fully  vindicated  and  all 
suspicions  dispelled ;  by  which  the  man  waiting 
for  instruction  is  rebuked  when  he  w^ould  become 
vain  and  proud,  or  cheered  when  he  would  lose 
his  courage  and  sink;  and  by  which  the  good 
man  has  his  purposes  of  usefulness  helped  on 
to  their  completion — openings  being  disclosed 
to  him  on  the  right  hand  and  on  the  left — 
mountains  which  seemed  to  shut  him  in, 
shewing  an  outlet  for  him  as  he  advances — 
and  the  stream  which  bears  him  along  hav- 
ing a  channel  provided  for  it,  till  it  carries 
him  to  his  destination.'"^  We  can  surely  be- 
hove that  He  who  has  so  provided  for  the 
meanest  of  the  earthly  wants  of  his  creatures, 

*■  The  author  has  explained  this  fully  in  the  "  Method  of  Divine 
Government,  Fhysical  and  IMoral."— -Bk.  II.,  chap.  ii. 


IN  THE  NATURAL.  Go 

will  also  provide  for  tlieir  deeper  and  spiritual 
wants. 

II.  In   nature   there   are   Souls   with   High 
Endowments. 

It  is  an  unfortunate  incidental  effect  of  the 
division  of  labour  in  science,  and  of  the  suc- 
cess which  has  attended  the  study  of  the  physical 
sciences,  and  of  the  interest  which  has,  in  con- 
sequence, collected  around  them  and  the  phe- 
nomena investigated  by  them,  that  the  most 
wondrous  object  disclosed  to  us  in  our  world  has 
been  overlooked  by  many  who  have  a  large  know- 
ledge of  the  heavens  and  earth,  or  a  minute 
acquaintance  with  particular  departments  of 
them.  Nature  is  a  vastly  richer  field  than  some 
imagine ;  it  has  gems,  which  many  never  discern, 
as  well  as  the  stone  and  the  clay  which  mankind 
are  ever  looking  at.  There  is  more  in  it  than 
mechanical,  and  chemical,  and  electric  force, — 
more  than  the  plant,  with  its  vital  power,  more 
than  the  animal,  with  its  sensations,  its  appe- 
tences, and  its  incipient  reason.  This  earth  has 
something  nobler  on  its  surface  than  the  tele- 
scope has^  ever  discovered  in  sun  or  star.  This 
epoch  of  our  worlds  history  has  in  it  a  being 
vastly  better,  and,  alas  !  vastly  worse,  than  all  the 
brutes  which  enjoyed  life  on  its  surface  in  the 
earlier  geological  ages.  In  the  complex  but  com- 
pact structure  of  nature  it  is  evident  that  some 


64  now  MUCH  IS  contained 

parts  are  higher  than  others ; — some  being,  as  it 
were,  the  moving  powers,  others  the  mere  channels 
of  transmission ;  some,  as  it  were,  the  head  and 
heart,  and  others  tlie  mere  arms  or  hmhs.    In  this 
economy  the  animate  has  a  higher  phice  than  the 
inanimate.     The  plant,  by  its  living  power,  draws 
rude  matter  into  itself,  and  turns  it  to  its  own 
uses ;  while,  again,  the  animal  feeds  upon  the 
plant,   and  subordinates  it  to  its  own  superior 
functions ;    and  above  them  all  is  the  soul  of 
man,  with  its  conscience  and  its  free  will,  capable 
of  controlling  the  animal  instincts,  and  turning 
them  to  high  moral  ends.     There  is  machinery 
in  our  world,  we  admit,  but  there  are  workmen 
with  throbbing  hearts  moving  and  labouring  in 
the  midst   of   it,  and  these   are  also  worthy  of 
our  attention   and  regards — the  very  machinery 
has  throughout  a  respect  to  them.     Yerily,  he 
must  be  guilty  of  a  flagrant  oversight  who,  in 
considering  nature,  overlooks  human  nature.     It 
is  as  if  one  were  to  visit  a  great  city,  and  admire 
its  masonry  and  its  architecture,  and   take   no 
notice  of  the  inhabitants,  with  their   strivings 
and  ambition,  their  sins  and  their  sc^tows;  or 
travel  through  a  rural  district,  and  feel  interested 
in  the  cottages  and  the  culture  of  the  fiekls,  but 
neglect  to  make  the  acquaintance  of  the  tillers 
of  the  ground,  with  their  cares,  their  feuds,  their 
industry  and  their  vices ;    or  as  if  one  were  to 


IN  THE  NATUIiAL.  65 

inspect  a  school,  and  note  its  order  and  its 
discipline,  and  not  think  of  tlie  motives  throb- 
bing in  the  hearts  of  the  children ;  or  it  is  as 
if  one  ^vere  to  look  down  from  a  lieight  on  a 
battle-field,  and  follow  the  military  movements, 
and  never  once  be  impressed  wdth  the  passions 
quivering  in  the  breasts  of  the  combatants,  or 
moved  by  the  writhings  of  the  wounded  and 
dying. 

].  Let  us  consider  that  the  soul  has  high 
Intellectual  Endoivments.  The  mechanical  in- 
quirer is  w^ell  employed  when  he  is  seeking  to 
obtain  the  riglit  expression  of  the  laws  of  motion 
and  force;  the  physiologist  is  fulfilling  a  very 
important  function  when  he  is  trying  to  catch 
the  more  recondite  laws  of  life;  but  let  both 
acknowledge  that  in  the  mind  of  man  there  are 
still  higher  laws  at  w^ork — if  only  the  psycholo- 
gist could  seize  them  as  they  act,  or  rather  that 
they  exist  and  ever  operate  wdiether  he  does  or 
does  not  succeed  in  apprehending  or  expressing 
them.  And  let  not  the  psychologist,  in  his 
attention  to  the  inferior  parts  of  our  mental 
nature,  iigis?,  the  higher  and  nobler.  As'he  looks 
at  the  dependence  of  mind  and  body,  let  him  not 
neglect  its  higher  and  more  independent  powders ; 
as  he  analyses  our  sensations,  and  our  instinc- 
tive feelings,  and  our  remembrances,  and  our 
associations,  let  him  not  omit  the  higher  attri- 


66  iioir  MUCH  is  contained 

butes  of  mind.  Whether  metaphysicians  have  or 
have  not  succeeded  in  mifolding  them,  let  us 
reahse  how  much  is  imphed  in  such  an  attribute 
as  consciousness,  the  consciousness  of  self — the 
consciousness  of  ourselves  as  persons ;  how  much 
is  involved  in  our  higher  intelligence;  in  our 
being  able  to  perceive  truth,  and  necessary  truth ; 
in  our  being  able  to  know  things,  and  the  rela- 
tion of  things  ;  to  know  the  necessity  of  mathe- 
matical and  other  relations,  and  the  indelible 
distinction  between  right  and  wrong.  These  in- 
telligent acts  shew  how  closely  we  are  allied  to 
higher  and  supernatural  intelligences. 

2.  Let  us  consider  how  much  is  involved  in 
our  haAdng  a  Free  Will,  and  in  our  being  free 
agents.  A  fact  is  now  before  us  of  an  altogether 
different  kind  from  those  which  meet  us  in  any 
of  the  lower  departments  of  nature.  In  behalf  of 
that  fact  we  have  the  testimony  of  consciousness 
so  clear,  so  decided,  so  assuring,  that  it  needs  no 
confirming  evidence,  and  can  be  set  aside  by  no 
seemingly  conflicting  proof.  In  order  to  gain  all 
we  need  for  our  argument,  we  do  not  require  to 
take  a  side  with  the  Augustinian  or  the«Pelagian, 
with  the  Calvinist  or  Arminian :  we  assume 
nothing  beyond  what  Augustine  and  Calvin  both 
acknowledge  —  that  man  has,  in  his  essential 
nature,  a  power  and  freedom  of  choice,  which 
makes  him  a  free  and  responsible  agent.     Here, 


IjY  the  natural.  67 

then,  we  have  a  being  raised  above  all  other 
subkmary  agents,  and  closely  allied  to  that  free 
agent  who  is  above  nature,  and  from  whose  free 
exercise  of  power  all  nature  has  proceeded.  At 
this  point  we  have  come  in  sight  of  that  pos- 
sibility of  sinning  which  has  issued  in  a  fearful 
actuality;  and  this  is  the  awful  fact  that  seems 
to  call  for  an  interposition  from  a  supernatural 
sphere. 

3.  The  natural  man  has  a  Conscience,  which 
discerns  a  moral  good  and  a  moral  evil ;  which 
declares  that  there  is  a  distinction  between  the 
two,  indelible  and  immutable  ;  which  points  up  to 
a  law  altogether  different  in  kind  from  mathema- 
tical or  physical  law;  a  law  with  obligations  re- 
quiring us  to  do  this,  and  not  to  do  that;  a  law 
above  man,  implying  a  lawgiver  above  nature — a 
lawgiver  who  must  also  be  a  judge,  and  call  man 
into  account  for  the  "  things  done  in  his  body, 
according  to  that  he  hath  done,  whether  it  be 
good  or  bad."  Every  one  carries  in  his  very 
nature  feelings  and  principles  which  announce 
and  guarantee  all  these  truths ;  and  whoever 
believes  them,  as  the  great  body  of  mankind  do 
beheve  them,  in  a  less  or  more  conscious  man- 
ner, feels  himself  under  a  supernatural  authority, 
responsible  to  a  supernatural  being,  and  about  to 
exist  in  a  supernatural  state  of  things. 

4.  Man  is,  in  his  very  nature,  a  Bdigious  Being. 


G8 


now  MUCH  IS  COXTAINED 


This  is  attested  at  once  by  every  man's  internal 
feeling  and  by  the  records  of  history.  Different 
accounts  have  been  given  of  what  it  is  in  man's 
natm^e  which  makes  him  the  subject  of  religious 
convictions,  of  rehgious  fears,  and  religious  hopes. 
Some  have  supposed  it  to  spring  from  an  im- 
inediate  intuition  or  consciousness  of  God.  I 
am  more  inclined  to  look  upon  it  as  the  natural 
and  intended  result  of  several  native  intuitions 
called  forth  by,  and  proceeding  upon,  certain  very 
obvious  observed  facts.  The  native  principle  of 
causation  ever  prompts  man  to  seek  for  a  cause 
of  that  order  and  beneficence  which  everywhere 
meet  our  eye  in  nature,  and  in  the  chase  after 
subordinate  causes  he  is  never  satisfied  till  he 
reaches  a  supernatural  and  Divine  cause.  Our 
moral  faculty  recognises,  and  looks  up  to,  a  law 
having  authority,  and  this  law  is  the  expression 
of  the  holy  nature  of  a  lawgiver.  Our  conception 
and  belief  in  regard  to  infinity  can  find  nothing 
but  an  abstraction  till  they  rest  in  an  infinite 
God.  According  to  the  account  now  given,  all 
the  steps  in  this  process  are  not  immediately 
intuitive,  nor  is  the  whole  apodictive  or  demon- 
strative like  a  mathematical  proposition.  There 
are  observational  or  experiential  elements  enter- 
ing into  the  argument ;  but  these  are  facts  which 
can  be  seen  by  all,  and  which  press  themselves 
on  the  attention  of  every  one ;  and,  with  these 


J^Y  TUE  NATURAL.  Gl) 

facts  before  the  mind,   there  are  fundamental 
laws  of  thought  and  belief,  which  lead  up  to  the 
conviction  of  a  God  to  whom  all  power  belongs, 
and  who  acts  in  all  action,  who  is  good  and  does 
good,  who  is  entitled  to  our  obedience,  as  he 
claims  our  obedience,  and  is  greater  than  we  can 
conceive — so  great,  indeed,  that  he  cannot  be 
greater.     The  conviction  thus  wrought  in  us  is 
one  which  may  be  very  much  crushed  by  intel- 
lectual degradation,  and  become  confused,  or  all 
but  overcome,  through  sophistry;  still  it  is  there 
in  the  breast,  very  much  undeveloped  it  may  be, 
but  ready  to  be  developed — like  the  plant  in  the 
dark  cellar,  as  it  were,  longing  for  the  light  and 
creeping  towards  it ;  ready  to  come  forth  under 
influences   in   any   measure    favourable ;    often 
bursting    out   in    very   adverse    circumstances ; 
making  unsophisticated  man  everywhere,  from 
love  or  from  fear,  from  selfishness  or  from  duty, 
a  worshipper  of  the  God  or  gods  recognized  by 
him,  and  rendering  those  who  have  been  misled 
by  infidel  sophistry  unsatisfied  and  restless,  and 
ever  doubtful  of  their  own  doubts. 

5.  The  soul  of  man  is  Immortal,  Our  convic- 
tion of  this  truth,  like  that  in  regard  to  the 
existence  of  God,  seems  to  be  the  issue  of  a 
number  of  mental  principles  looking  to  external 
facts,  and  all  concurring  towards  one  conclusion. 
The  sense  and  consciousness  of  self  as  a  separate 


*^     •  BOir  3IUCE  IS  CONTAINED 

person,  the  absence  of  any  evidence  that  this 
self  dies,  the  shrinking  from  the  very  thought  of 
jinnihilation,  the  impression  that  the  soul  may 
live  when  the  body  dies,  all  conspire  to  produce  a 
deep  conviction,  which  can  scarcely  be  eradicated, 
and  which  no  good  man  would  eradicate.  Our 
sense  of  moral  obligation,  and  of  responsibility, 
exerts  a  yet  greater  power  over  us — we  feel  that 
we  must  appear  before  God  in  judgment.  These, 
and  it  may  be  other  feelings,  have  raised,  or,  aided 
by  tradition  so  far  preserved  through  these  feel- 
ings, have  kept  alive,  a  deep  persuasion  among 
all  nations  that  the  soul  at  death  has  to  appear 
at  a  judgment  seat,  to  be  there  consigned  to  a 
place  of  happiness  or  of  woe. 

III.  Nature  has  within  it  abounding  Sin. 

It  requires  some  skill  to  place  this  truth  in  its 
proper  light  (or  darkness)  as  a  truth  of  natural 
religion.  For  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  we 
owe,  to  some  extent,  the  knowledge  and  the  sense 
of  sin  to  the  revelation  that  G  od  has  been  pleased 
to  make  of  his  will.  Still  there  is  a  sense  of  sin, 
developed  or  undeveloped,  in  all  men.  Every 
one  is  obliged  to  acknowledge  the  justice  of  the 
charge  when  he  is  dealing  honestly  wuth  himself, 
though  he  may  deny  it  with  great  vehemence 
when  others  attack  him,  or  when  he  is  determined 
to  defend  himself  from  the  reproaches  of  con- 
science.    Again,  the  extensive  prevalence  of  vice 


IN  TEH  KATURAL.  i  1 

in  the  world  is  recorded  by  every  faithful  chro- 
nicler, is  mourned  over  by  every  moralist  and 
philanthropist.  The  extent  and  depth  of  tlie 
evil  are  apparent  from  the  very  efforts  made  to 
stem  it,  and  which  may  have  helped  to  turn  it 
away  from  particular  channels,  but  have  not  suc- 
ceeded in  drying  up  its  bitter  waters.  The  Word 
of  God  presupposes  the  fact  of  the  existence  of 
sin,  even  as  it  supposes  the  fact  of  the  existence 
of  God;  and  it  charges  man,  in  the  name  of 
God,  with  being  ungodly,  and  expects  to  meet 
with  a  response  in  the  heart  and  conscience,  and 
is,  in  fact,  answered  by  an  echo,  often  very  weak, 
and  at  times  interfered  with  in  the  noises  of  the 
day,  and  not  heard  when  disturbed  by  the  tumults 
of  life,  but  audible  ever  in  the  quieter  hours  of 
reflection  and  self-examination  —  as  we  have 
beard  an  echo  in  the  quiet  of  evening,  which 
w^ould  not  sound  in  the  bustle  of  the  day  and 
when  the  winds  were  raging.  It  is  in  very  pro- 
portion as  persons  realise  this  great  fact  that 
they  are  prepared  to  listen  to  the  revelation 
which  God  has  been  pleased  to  make  in  the 
Gospel.  Those  who  speculatively  deny  the 
natural  truth  will  be  tempted  to  doubt  of,  or 
deny,  the  supernatural  one.  Those  who  feel 
the  deep  natural  w^ants,  and  who  see  very  clearly 
that  nature  cannot  remedy  them,  wall  not  be 
indisposed  to  welcome  the  supernatural  remedy, 


i^  HOW  MUCH  IS  CONTAINED      a 

provided  it   comes   with   the   proper   eyidential 
support. 

For   mark  what  it  is   w^e   meet  with   every- 
where in  the  workl  around  us,  and  deep  down 
there  in  that  dark  nature  which  we  carry  with 
us.     The  facts  are  as  patent  as  any  that  physi- 
cal science  looks  at,  and  they  have  a  prior  and 
a  deeper  claim  upon  our   immediate  attention, 
for  they  have  a  closer  connexion  with  our  essen- 
tial heing   and    our  destiny.     We  have  a  con- 
science within  us  w4iich  announces,  on  the  one 
hand,  that  there  is  a  moral  law  ahove  us  and 
binding   on   us,  and,   on    the  other  hand,  that 
we  have  not  kept  that  law.     We  find  proof,  on 
all  hands,  that  God  hates  sin,  and  yet  we  see  sin 
abounding  all  around  us  in  the  world  which  God 
has  made,  and  over  which  he  rules. .    Everyw^here 
in  heaven  and  earth  do  we  see   order,  and  yet 
everywhere,  in  the  midst  of  that  order  on  earth, 
do   we    see    sin,  wdiich    is   manifestly   disorder. 
Physical  law  is  viewed  in  the  highest  light  when 
regarded  as  a  mean  to  moral  good  as  an  end, 
and  yet  how  frequently  do  the  means  fail  to 
secure  the  end, — and  that  pure  sun  lights  men 
as  they  go  to  perform  deeds  of  darkness,  and  the 
riches   of   the    earth-  incite  lusts   and   pamper 
luxury.     AVe  are  sure  that  God  must  punish  sin, 
and  we  see  him  often  punish  it  in  this  world ; 
and  yet  quite  as  often  do   we   see  wickedness 


IN  THE  NATURAL.  73 


trium[)liing.  How  often  is  the  judgment  delayed, 
very  possibly  that  it  may  only  be  the  more  terrible 
at  last — as  we  have  seen  the  cloud  gatlier  and 
thicken,  that  in  the  end  it  may  burst  with  more 
fury.  Or  rather  may  not  the  punishment  be 
delayed  in  order  that  the  offender  may  repent  and 
be  forgiven  ?  yes,  forgiven — we  look  for  it,  we  cry 
for  it,  we  hope  for  it.  lu  our  world  the  shadow 
pursues  the  light,  but  the  light  also  pursues  the 
shadow — which  is  from  a  light  shining  above  us, 
though  obstructed  by  the  vapours  arising  from 
the  damps  of  the  earth.  Clouds  there  are, 
threatening  destruction,  yet  there  is  a  bow  upon 
them — from  a  still  shining  sun — encouraging  us 
as  by  a  smile.  Yet,  while  we  hope,  we  cannot 
point  to  a  ground  of  hope ;  the  conscience  is 
there,  ever  ready  to  raise  its  voice  as  an  accuser,-^ 
but  where  is  the  voice  to  declare  the  pardon  ? 
He  who  ponders  these  facts,  in  their  relation  one 
to  another,  as  intently  as  the  physicist  does  the 
unexplained  phenomena  of  the  universe,  will  find 
himself  in  terrible  perplexity.  He  hears  the 
earth,  in  its  travailing,  uttering  a  cry,  but,  as 
he  listens,  he  can  hear  no  answer  from  the  earth, 
and  he  looks  up  and  almost  expects  to  hear  it 
from  heaven.  He  admires  nature — he  cannot 
but  admire  it,  and  he  approves  himself  as  he 
admires  it,  and  yet  he  is  confident  that  there  is 
something  wanting,  and  he  argues  that,  under  the 


74 


now  MUCH  IS  CONTAINED 


government  of  a  good  God,  there  must  be  some- 
thing to  join  on  to  what  he  sees  broken  off  so  ab- 
ruptly. He  argues  that,  outside  the  natural,  there 
must  be  a  supernatural  part — the  two  constitut- 
ing the  perfect  whole ;  and  he  infers  this  almost 
as  confidently  as  Columbus,  and  others  before 
him,  argued  that  there  was  a  new  world  lying 
West  of  the  old,  long  before  it  was  actually 
discovered — almost  as  surely  as  mathematicians 
concluded  that  there  must  be  a  new  planet  out- 
side the  old  ones  and  part  of  the  system,  when 
yet  the  telescope  had  not  lighted  upon  it.  In 
consequence  of  the  scientific  expectations,  many 
an  eye  looked  from  Teneriffe  far  into  the  West, 
in  order  to  see  the  new  land,  and  not  a  few 
thought  they  saw  it  when  it  was  only  a  cloud 
that  appeared;  and  many  a  glass  was  directed 
to  the  heavens  to  find  the  wanting  planet — some 
thinking  they  had  found  it  when  it  was  only  an 
old  star  that  came  into  view ;  and,  in  like  man- 
ner, multitudes  have  Rooked  prematurely  for  the 
supernatural  revelation,  and  been  disappointed  or 
deceived ;  yet  these  very  anxious  looks,  and  the 
repeated  belief  in  spite  of  failure,  prove  the  depth 
and  reasonableness  of  the  expectation,  which, 
again,  is  a  sort  of  prognostic  or  guarantee  that 
it  will,  somehow  or  other,  at  one  time  or  other, 
be  gratified. 

IV.  In  nature  there  is  a  Mokal  Government. 


IN  THE  NATURAL.  75 

liiis  government  is  very  complex.  It  is  so 
because  of  the  variety  of  ends  which  it  lias  to 
serve,  in  a  state  of  things  in  which  man  is  free 
and  man  has  sinned,  in  which  God  condemns 
sin  and  favours  the  sinner. 

1.  God  encourages  tlie  moralhj  good.  This  is 
evident,  lirst  of  all,  in  the  agreeable  feelings 
which  all  benevolent  affections  raise,  and  in  the 
echoing  pleasure  which  the  reflective  conscience 
feels  in  the  contemplation  of  all  good  actions. 
These  are  the  immediate  rewards  which  virtue 
reaps.  They  are  quite  as  clearly  rewards  as 
those  given  in  the  family  by  the  father  to  his 
obedient  children,  or  those  bestowed  in  the 
school  by  the  master  to  his  diligent  pupils. 
There  are  other  and  more  indirect  encour- 
agements;— in  industry  commonly  securing  a 
competent  portion  of  this  world's  goods  ;  in  ex- 
cellence of  character  gaining  trust  and  esteem, 
and  opportunities  of  rising  in  this  world;  in 
the  benevolent  being  helped  on  in  their  schemes 
of  usefulness,  and  in  love  kindling  love  in 
return. 

2.  Siti  is  so  far  discountenanced  and  imnished. 
There  are  the  direct  consequences  in  the  pain- 
ful sensations  which  accompany  all  the  malign 
affections ;  in  the  weariness  and  ennui  that 
come  after  sinful  indulgences,  as  vultures  do  on 
the  back  of  the  carnage ;  and,  above  all,  in  the 


76 


now  MUCH  IS  CONTAINED 


accusing'  conscience  which  gives  its  warning — at 
least  after  the  hrst  transgression  in  a  particular 
hne,  and  raises  up  fears  to  haunt  the  guilty 
wherever  t'hey  go.  The  judicial  condemnations, 
the  hiipositions  of  fines,  the  confinements  and 
the  executions,  are  not  more  certainly  penalties 
in  the  government  of  nations,  than  these  inward 
reproaches  are  punishments  in  the  kingdom  of 
God.  There  are  other  appointments  which  have 
also  a  penal  character.  Thus  we  see  idleness 
and  vicious  indulgences  landing  the  possessor  in 
poverty;  and  the  drunkard  and  licentious,  as  it 
were,  sold  into  slavery  to  pay  the  expense  of 
their  lusts ;  and  the  deceitful  caught  in  the  net 
he  has  laid  for  others.  At  times,  too,  we  see 
the  hold  transgressor,  who  has  lifted  his  head  as 
a  headland  facing  the  sky,  struck  visibly  as  by 
lightning  from  heaven,  or  wicked  men  who  have 
combined  to  raise  an  impious  tower  of  defiance 
scattered  by  a  confusion  among  the  builders. 
The  connexion  between  the  moon's  motions 
and  the  tides  of  the  ocean,  is  not  more  certain 
than  that  between  sin  and  sufiering; — the  de- 
pendence in  both  these  cases  may  seem  some- 
what complex,  and  to  have  exceptions — which, 
however,  are  only  seeming ;  but  in  both  it  can 
be  firmly  established, — it  being  vastly  mure 
important,  however,  that  we  observe  it  in  the 
latter  case  than  in  the  former,  and  also  certain 


IN  THE  NATURAL.  i  i 

that  mankind  generally  have  been  constrained 
by  their  apprehensions  to  attend  with  far  greater 
eagerness  to  the  moral  than  even  to  the  physical 
connection. 

3.  God  is  delmjing  the  imnislunent  of  transgressors , 
thus. giving  to  all  a  period  of  probation.  He  is 
good  and  kind,  and  often  continues  long  to  be 
so,  to  those  who  have  broken  and  are  still  break- 
ing his  law.  "  He  maketh  his  sun  to  rise  on 
the  evil  and  on  the  good,  and  sendeth  rain  on 
the  just  and  the  unjust."  The  governor  is 
evidently  also  the  father  of  those  he  is  called 
to  condemn,  and  we  see  that  he  is  loth  to 
condemn  and  slow  to  strike,  and  all  that  he 
may  give  space  and  opportunity  for  repentance. 

4.  God  ii'ill  in  the  end  punish  offenders.  We 
argue  this  very  immediately  from  the  imperative 
character  of  the  law,  which  cannot  let  go  its  re- 
quirements and  must  exact  its  penalty,  and  from 
the  immutable  character  of  God  the  governor, 
who  upholds  that  law  as  his  own  law  prescribed 
as  the  rule  of  the  universe.  It  is  clear  that  the 
eye  of  our  ruler  is  ever  upon  us,  and  when  his 
uplifted  arm  is  staid  for  a  time,  it  is  only  that  it 
may  come  down  with  more  terrible  power  in  the 
end — as  the  avalanche  collects  for  years,  and 
then,  as  it  is  loosened  by  a  heavenly  beam,  de- 
scends on  the  instant.  Often  may  we  track 
Divine  justice  pursuing  its  victim  through  a  long 


78  HOW  MUCH  IS  CONTAINED 

series  of  years,  and  a  complicated  course  of 
things,  and  at  last  springing  upon  it  at  the  oppor- 
tune moment  when  escape  is  hopeless.  The 
explosion  which  rouses  the  whole  community  is 
from  the  simple  application  of  a  spark  to  a  train, 
which  had  long  heen  laid.  All  this  prepares  us 
to  believe  that  God  will  by  no  means  spare  the 
guilty,  and  that,  "  though  hand  join  in  hand, 
tlie  wicked  shall  not  be  unpunished." 

5.  Now,  it  is  because  the  government  of  God 
has  all  these  ends  to  accomplish,  and  has  to  deal 
with  such  a  multitude  and  diversity  of  human 
beings,  so  mixed  up  one  with  another  in  the 
various  relations  of  life,  in  its  family  ties,  its 
friendships,  its  connexions  of  business,  of  neigh- 
bourhood, and  of  country,  that  it  is  so  complicated 
and  so  clifficidt  of  iJiterpretation,  God  must  en- 
courage the  good,  and  yet  not  so  encourage  them 
as  to  pamper  their  self- righteousness  and  make 
them  feel  that  they  have  no  sin.  He  has  to  shew 
his  disapproval  of  the  sin,  and  yet  he  would  spare 
the  sinner  and  allure  him  to  repentance.  He 
spares  the  sinner,  and  yet  he  must  not  counte- 
nance him  in  his  sin.  By  one  and  the  same 
event,  one  man  has  his  wickedness  exposed,  and 
another  his  innocence  cleared;  one  is  cheered 
and  quickened,  another  is  rebuked  and  arrested. 
Every  member  of  the  household  is  in"  a  diiferent 
mental  or  moral  or  spiritual  state,  and  needs  a 


IN  THE  NATUJRAL.  79 

different  lesson ;  and  the  family  occurrence  has 
a  lesson  to  each,  to  father  and  mother,  to  sister 
and  brother — possibly  far-reaching  consequences 
to  that  little  infant.  The  great  public  event 
which  is  a  judgment  upon  the  community, 
is  a  blessing  to  certain  individuals  ;  or  while 
it  is  an  appropriate  trial  to  certain  persons, 
it  is  a  benefit  to  the  nation.  Often  does  the 
warning  seem  to  come  after  the  judgment,  as 
the  report  comes  after  the  shot  has  done  its 
work — as  the  roar  of  the  thunder  is  heard  after 
the  lightning  has  smitten  its  Adctim ;  but  the 
audible  signals  may  be  a  warning  to  others,  and 
the  judgment  has  at  last  descended  on  those 
who  got  admonition  upon  admonition  without 
attending,  and  who  have  now  to  be  cut  off  with- 
out farther  notice.  When  the  instruments  of 
God's  government  have  such  diverse  ends  to 
effect,  no  one  should  pretend  to  be  able  to  find 
out  all  the  purposes  of  God  in  any  one  occur- 
rence ;  it  will  generally  be  enough  that  he  dis- 
covers the  lesson  which  it  reads  to  himself  as  an 
individual.  Our  Lord  severely  rebukes  those 
who  looked  upon  calamities  as  judgments  proving 
guilt  on  the  part  of  those  on  whom  they  fell, 
and  tells  us  expressly  that  those  who  had  been 
slain  while  offering  sacrifices  at  the  altar,  and 
those  on  whom  the  tower  of  Siloam  had  fallen, 
w^ere  not  to  be  reckoned  as  sinners  above  others 


80         •         now  MUCH  IS  contained 

(Luke  xiii.  1 — 4).  But  ^Ylnle  we  must  be  on  our 
guard  against  rash  judgments  in  individual  cases, 
every  one  is  expected  to  discover  certain  great 
moral  laws,  such  as  the  law  of  reward,  the  law  of 
penalty,  the  law  of  forbearance,  and  the  law  of 
final  retribution.  Unsophisticated  men  have  ever, 
in  fact,  held  more  or  less  firmly  by  these  general 
beliefs,  and  though  they  have  often  felt  the  dis- 
pensations of  providence  to  be  dark  and  myste- 
rious, and  experienced  an  extreme  difiiculty  in 
determining  in  any  given  case  which  of  these 
purposes,  or  how  many  of  them,  are  intended  to 
be  served,  or,  indeed,  what  purpose  has  been 
accomplished,  and  have  often  pronounced  rash 
and  uncharitable  judgments  on  others,  yet  they 
have  always,  and  in  spite  of  appearances,  held 
that  the  judge  of  all  the  earth  must  ever  do  right, 
and  have  believed  and  been  sure  that  a  just  end 
has  been  served,  even  when  they  have  failed  to 
discover  it.  Admirable  as  is  the  machinery  em- 
ployed in  the  evolution  of  the  bodies  of  the  solar 
system,  and  admirable  as  are  the  arrangements 
for  enabling  organisms  to  fulfil  their  functions,  I 
am  convinced  that  the  adjustment  of  means  and 
end  in  God's  government  will  be  seen  to  be  vastly 
more  wondrous  and  wdse  when  the  whole  Vvdieels 
and  their  fittings  and  products  are  fully  disclosed 
to  the  saints  in  the  world  to  come,  and  the 
meaning  of  every  dispensation  clearly  explained. 


IN  THE  NATURAL.  81 

But  while  we  have  so  much  certainty  on  these 
topics,  w^e  find  the  certainty  only  landing  us  in 
deeper  uncertainty.  We  are  sure  that  God 
hates,  and  that  he  will  punish  sin,  and  we  hope 
that  he  is  ready  to  forgive  it ;  hut  we  have  no 
means  of  bringing  together  and  reconciling  these 
different  convictions.  We  here  fall  in  with  an 
awful  chasm ;  we  believe  that  in  a  world,  under  a 
good  God,  there  must  be  some  bridge  to  span  it, 
and  yet  as  we  grope  in  the  darkness  we  cannot 
find  it.  He  who  has  realized  all  this  certainty  and 
uncertainty  will  not  turn  away  with  levity  or  con- 
tempt from  what  seems  a  supernatural  method  of 
reconcilement,  and  of  turning  the  uncertainty 
into  certainty. 


82  THE  NATURAL  A  MANIFESTATION 


CHAPTER  V. 


THE  NATURAL  A  MANIFESTATION  OF  THE  SUPER- 
NATURAL. 


Before  mounting  into  the  higher  and  more 
recondite  region  of  the  Supernatural,  we  may 
gather  into  a  few  groups  some  of  the  truths 
picked  up  by  us  in  the  lower  fields  of  the 
Natural. 

§  1- 

Religion  should  never  be  regarded  as  an 
isolated  act  or  exercise.  Godliness  should  run 
through  the  whole  man,  his  whole  temper, 
beliefs,  and  acts,  and  sliould  guide  him  in  the 
view  he  takes  of  all  the  objects  coming  under 
his  notice.  In  particular,  it  should  lead  us  to 
look  on  nature  as  a  whole,  and  on  every  part  of 
it  as  a  manifestation  of  God. 

The  natural  implies  the  supernatural.  The 
fitting  of  every  one  object  to  every  other,  and 
the  order  of  nature  as  the  result,  presuppose  a 
disposer  of  the  several  agents.  The  combination 
of  means  towards  a  beneficent  end  shows  design 


OF  THE  SUPERXATURAL.  So 

contemplated  by  a  designer.  In  particular,  the 
soul  of  man,  with  its  free  will,  its  intelligence,  and 
its  reason  speculative  and  moral,  claims  for  its 
author  a  living  Being  possessed  of  these  qualities 
in  an  infinite  degree.  The  intuitive  convictions 
of  the  mind,  looking  to  obvious  facts,  insist  on  all 
this ;  insist  that  the  world,  as  an  effect,  implies  a 
being  above  it  as  a  cause,  indeed,  are  not  satisfied 
till  we  rise  beyond  the  chain  of  causation  to  the 
uncaused,  beyond  the  dependent  to  the  indepen- 
dent. We  cannot  understand  the  physical,  unless 
we  bring  in  the  hyperphysical.  In  contemplat- 
ing the  finite  we  are  necessitated  to  believe  that 
there  is  an  infinite.  The  sense  of  moral  obliga- 
tion proceeds  on  the  existence  of  a  moral  law, 
which  implies  a  lawgiver,  who  is  the  judge  of 
bis  intelligent  creatures,  and  of  all  their  actions, 
and  who  must,  therefore,  institute  a  searching 
judgment  day,  and  distribute  impartial  retribu- 
tions in  a  supernatural  state  of  existence. 

§  2. 
The  religious  spirit  recognizes  God  in  all 
nature ;  it  sees  him  as  upholding  all  substance  ; 
as  the  power  in  all  force  ;  the  actor  in  all  action  ; 
the  mover  in  all  motion ;  living  in  all  life ; 
shaping  in  all  forms  ;  organizing  in  all  systems  ; 
himself  the  light  and  the  fountain  from  which  all 
other  lights  are  fed  ;  knowing  in  all  knowledge  ; 


84  TUE  ^ATUIiAL  A  2IANIFESTATI02T 

himself  lovely,  and  the  author  of  the  loveliness  in 
every  kind  of  heauty ;  himself  good  and  in  every 
good  deed;  compassionating  wherever  there  is 
sorrow  ;  helping  in  all  timely  succour  ;  the  judge 
when  justice  is  dispensed  ;  the  avenger  when 
w^rong  is  remedied  ;  cherishing  affection  to  all 
his  creatures  ;  and  loving  in  all  their  holy  love. 

§  3- 
But  man  in  his  ungodliness  has  failed  to  see 
God  as  he  should  have  done.  This  ungodly 
spirit  has  taken  various  forms.  Atheism  sees 
God  in  nothing, — fails  to  see  his  wisdom  in  the 
order  of  nature,  and  his  providence  in  the  gifts 
bestowed  on  his  creatures;  and  it  is  atheism, 
whether  with  the  ancient  sceptic 'it  does  not,  or 
with  the  modern  sceptic  it  does,  discover  order 
and  method  in  the  universe.  Pantheism  consists 
in  failing  to  distinguish  God  from  his  works,  and 
this,  whether  it  looks  upon  the  works  as  being 
God,  or  on  God  as  existing  only  in  his  works. 
Superstition  sees  God  in  certain  of  his  works, 
but  not  in  others ;  in  those  only  which  excite, 
and  move,  and  startle,  not  in  those  which  are 
more  regular,  and  constant,  and  familiar.  True 
piety  sees  God  in  every  agent,  and  would  gather 
from  every  occurrence  the  lessons  which  it  is 
fitted  to  read;  and  it  is  true  piety,  whether  it 
does  or  does  not  discover  the  second  or  instru- 


OF  TEE  SUFERXATURAL.  85 

mental  cause, — the  difierence  between  the  piety 
of  the  unscientilic  and  the  scientific  man  lying 
only  in  this,  that  the  former  may  discover  God, 
and  God  only,  as  the  actor,  whereas  the  other 
sees,  besides,  somewhat  of  the  system  on  which 
God  proceeds,  and  the  physical  agents  employed 
by  him.  As  against  the  atheist,  who  believes 
only  in  fate,  or  who  looks  on  all  things  as  pro- 
duced by  mechanical  causation,  or  as  brought 
about  by  chance,  piety  ascribes  every  object,  and 
traces  every  event,  to  God;  it  will  not  hand 
over  the  beneficent  order  of  the  seasons  to  blind 
law,  nor  abandon  the  extraordinary  coincidences 
of  Providence  to  accident;  it  cannot  allow  the 
course  of  things  to  take  the  credit  of  these 
bright  stars  and  beauteous  flowers;  and  when 
health  is  restored,  after  a  period  of  sickness,  it 
gives  the  glory  and  the  thanks  *to  Him  who  has 
arranged  the  means  and  been  operating  in  them. 
It  rejoices,  with  the  pantheist,  to  see  God  in  all 
his  works ;  but  it  will  not  allow  that  God  is 
exhausted  by  his  works;  it  believes  that  God 
w^as  before  his  works,  is  above  his  works,  and  is 
independent  of  them.  As  against  the  super- 
stitious man,  it  claims  for  God  the  symmetry  and 
the  harmony  of  nature,  as  well  as  those  occur- 
rences which  may  seem  to  come  as  anomalies  or 
interferences;  it  discovers  him  in  the  storm,  but 
it  also  feels  him  in  the  calm ;  it  sees  him  in  the 


86  THE  NATURAL  A  MANIFESTATION 

disease  which  prostrates  our  energies  and  makes 
us  reahze  our  helplessness,  but  it  also  constrains 
us  to  recognize  him  in  the  health  which  has 
buoyed  us  up  for  years. 


The  ungodly  spirit  may  coexist  with  all  de- 
grees of  ignorance  or  of  knowledge  as  to  the 
system  of  nature.  It  may  exist  in  the  most 
ignorant  peasant,  or  in  the  most  degraded 
savage,  who  discerns  in  the  earth  only  the  clay 
and  the  clod ;  who  can  appreciate  the  tree  as 
bearing  fruit  or  yielding  shelter,  but  discovers 
nothing  else  in  it;  who  appreciates  his  sheep 
and  his  cattle,  only  as  beasts  to  yield  him  sus- 
tenance and  clothing ;  and  who  esteems  the  sun 
merely  as  a  beneficent  light  for  the  day,  and  the 
moon  and  stars  as  useful  lamps  hung  out  in  the 
darkness  of  night.  It  may  dwell  in  the  breasts 
of  the  half-educated  or  semi-civilized,  who  see 
natural  law,  and  natural  law  only,  in  the  more 
regular  occurrences, — in  the  revolving  stars  and 
revolving  seasons,  in  the  springing  of  the  grass 
and  grain,  and  in  the  growth  and  sustenance  of 
his  own  frame, — and  wdio  divide  other  and  more 
irregular  occurrences  between  chance  and  the 
God  or  gods  momentarily  loved  or  feared  for  the 
gifts  sent  or  the  judgments  which  may  seem  im- 
pending.    It  may  lodge,  in  intensest  keenness. 


OF  TEE  S  TIPERNA  TURA  L.  87 

ready,  when  provoked,  to  break  into  terrible  bit- 
terness, in  the  deepest  lieart  of  our  men  of 
science,  who,  in  studying  and  admiring  mecha- 
nical power,  and  chemical  and  electrical  forces, 
and  vital  energy,  and  in  viewing  the  adaptation 
of  every  one  part  to  every  other  merely  as  the 
condition  of  existence,  resist  and  resent  the  pre- 
sence of  a  living  and  spiritual  God  acting  in 
all  these  agencies,  and  employing  them  for  the 
accomplishment  of  his  moral  ends, 

§•5. 

The  religious  spirit  is  equally  compatible  with 
all  degrees  of  ignorance  in  respect  .of  the  order 
of  nature.  The  rudest  barbarian,  the  unedu- 
cated labourer  in  our  civilized  countries,  the 
child  just  beginning  to  use  its  senses  intelli- 
gently, may  be  taught  to  contemplate  every 
object  in  earth  or  sky,  may  be  taught  to  regard 
star  and  flower,  tree  and  mountain,  shower  and 
sunshine,  prosperity  and  adversity,  life  and  death, 
as  the  operation  of  God's  hand, — the  physical 
cause  being  all  the  while  concealed  or  unknown. 
The  man  more  intellectually  advanced  may  dis- 
cover order  and  law  in  certain  courses  of  things 
which  look  constant  and  settled,  as  in  the  mo- 
tions of  the  heavenly  bodies,  and  the  ordinances 
of  the  seasons  which  supply  him  with  food ;  while 
in  other  occurrences,  as  in  his  preservation  from 


88  THE  NATUBAL  A  MANIFESTATION 

eminent  danger,   and  the  opportunities  of  re- 
ceiving s^^ecial  privileges,  he  may  discover  inter- 
ferences, or  rather  dispositions,  to  accomphsh  a 
special  end ;  but  he  deUghts  to  acknowledge  God 
and  his  wisdom  and  goodness  both  in  the  regular 
positions    and    the    irregular    interpositions    of 
things.     Finally,    he   who    has    fallen   in    most 
thoroughly  with  the  spirit  and  the  method  of  in- 
duction, and  who  believes  in  universal  law  reign- 
ing in  all  ages  past  and  present,  even  in  stars 
visible  only  by  the  telescope,  and  in  molecules 
invisible    by   the   microscope,    in    every  change 
of  our  ever  changing  bodily  state,  and  in  every 
impulse  of  our  ever  active  minds,  may  have   a 
faith  as  strong  as  that  of  the  child  or  peasant, 
while  it  is  more  enlightened  and  expanded.    The 
only  difference  between  these  cases  is,  that,  in 
the  first,  the  man  of  faith  sees  God  and  God  only 
in  his  work ;  that,  in  the  second,  he  observes  a 
general  plan  in  some  of  God's  works,  and  a  special 
end  in  others,  and  the  presence  of  God  in  both ; 
while,  in  the  third,  he  beholds  a  gaiieral  plan 
in  all,  but  a  plan  arranged  for  the  very  purpose 
of  accomplishing  all  and  each  of  the  purposes  of 
God,    general   and    special.      In    the   first,   the 
intellect  could  take  in  no  more,  but  the  faith 
was    as   extensive  as  the  intelligence,  so  that, 
wherever  a  work  was  discerned,  there,  also,  the 
worker  was  acknowledged.     In  the  second  case, 


OF  THE  SUPERNATURAL. 


89 


the  man's  intellectual  vision  was  enlarged  and 
his  faith  widened  with  it ;  he  got  glimpses  of  an 
order,  which  he  contemplated  as  a  Divine  plan, 
and  also  of  particular  purposes  secured.  In 
the  third,  science  has  carried  him  to  a  height 
whence  he  ohserves  that  the  design  is  so  uni- 
versal as  to  require  no  interferences,  that  in  the 
plan  itself  are  such  adaptations,  such  windings 
round  the  ohject  meant  to  bo  preserved,  and 
turnings  where  an  obstacle  presents  itself,  that 
the  most  minute  purposes  of  God  are  fully  exe- 
cuted. He  knows  that  the  lily  grows  by  natural 
law^,  but  he  believes  also  that  it  grows  by  the  ar- 
rangement and  the  very  powder  of  God,  and  that 
God  clothes  it  with  beauty.  He  knows  that  the 
sparrow  lives  and  dies  according  to  physiological 
laws,  but  he  knows  also  that  a  sparrow  cannot 
fall  to  the  ground  without  God. 


Let  not  the  scientific  or  half  scientific  man 
smile  at  the  piety  of  his  child,  or  ridicule  the 
devoutness  of  his  servant,  who  discerns  the 
great  acting  power,  but  may  have  missed  the 
secondary  instrument;  who  knows  that  God 
makes  his  sun  to  shine,  though  he  is  not 
aware  that  his  beams  come  in  vibrations ;  wdio 
believes  that  God  sends  the  rain,  though  he  has 
no  idea  that  electricity  has  to  do  with  it.     Nor 


00 


THE  NATURAL  A  MANIFESTATION 


let  tlie  ignorant  man,  in  liis  ignorance,  charge 
the  philosopher  with  atheism  when  he  delights 
to  detect  not  only  the  Divine  presence  and 
power,  hut  the  Divine  plan,  and  to  look  into 
the  internal  mechanism  which  makes  the  hands 
to  move  over  the  face  of  the  great  timepiece 
standing  hefore  him  in  nature.  But  we  hehove 
to  rehuke  the  peasant  and  the  very  savage,  wdien 
.he  can  inhale  the  hreeze  of  heaven  and  eat  the 
corn  of  earth,  without  giving  God  thanks.  And 
w^e  are  entitled  to  reprove  the  philosopher,  and 
this  in. the  very  measure  of  his  j)i'etensions  to  a 
higher  light,  when  he  discovers  order,  hut  fails 
to  notice  design;  wdien  he  examines  the  struc- 
ture of  the  machine,  hut  overlooks  the  name  of 
the  Maker  inscrihed  on  it;  as  he  incessantly 
w^atches  the  apparatus,  hut  avoids  taking  any 
notice  of  the  great  moral  and  spiritual  ends 
promoted  hy  it. 

§  7- 

We  cannot  with  any  propriety  say  that  man- 
kind, in  these  latter  days,  are  hrought  into  closer 
contact  with  the  natural ;  for  in  early  times 
most  persons  had  to  earn  their  sustenance  by 
hunting  wild  beasts,  or  tending  their  herds,  or 
tilling  the  ground ;  and  in  "  this  age  of  great 
cities"  multitudes  are  very  much  removed  from 
close   intercourse  with   green  fields  and  trees. 


OF  THE  SUPERXATUnAL. 


91 


with  fowls  and  cattle.     But  to   counterbalance 
this,  the  educated  are  now  trained  to  look  more 
intently  on  the  scientific  structure  of  nature  ;  and 
the  dwellers  in  the  villas  that  girdle  our  great 
cities,   and  the   summer  saunterers  by  the  sea 
shore,    and    the    autumnal    ramblers   over   our 
mountains,  bring  themselves  to  appreciate  every 
varied  aspect  of  sea  and  sky,  of  rock  and  moun- 
tain, and  they  talk  of  nature  with  a  rapture  which 
would   have   appeared   affectation   to    our   fore- 
fathers.    This  state  of  things  has  its  temptations. 
That  which  was  meant  to  be  a  veil  to  keep  us 
from  being  blinded  by  the  effulgence  of  the  light 
— while  it  let  the  glory  of  God  shine  through — 
w^e  have  made  a  screen  to  conceal  him,  and  we 
have  gazed  at  the  screen,  and  the  figures  upon 
it,  and  we  have  stayed  there  without  looking  on 
the  living  face  beyoDd.     The  more  vulgar  minds 
stop  short,  and  satisfy  themselves  with  the  com- 
forts, the  wealth,  the  glitter  of  this  world,  cher- 
ishing meanwhile  no  love  to  the  giver,  and  feeling 
in  no  way  their  need  of  God  himself,  as  better 
than  all  his  gifts.     Minds  of  a  higher  but  not  a 
holier  spirit  content  themselves  with  inspecting 
the  machinery ;  like  children,  they  gaze  at  the 
chariot,  its  Avheels,  and  its  motions,  but  without 
looking  above  it  to  Him  who  rides  on  it  so  ma- 
jestically  to    scatter    blessings    and   administer 
justice.     Others,  more  refined,  are  exposed  to  a 


92  THE  NATURAL  A  MANIFESTATION 

different  class  of  temptations  ;  they  are  seduced 
by  their  highly  cultivated  tastes  into  the  worship 
of  foam -born  beauty. 

§8. 

But  that  high-born  soul  of  ours  can  never  be 
satislied  with  the  mere  mechanism  of  nature. 
The  railway  steam-engine  is  an  imposing  object, 
as  it  moves  on  towards  us  so  determinedly,  as  it 
sweeps  by  us  with  so  fixed  a  purpose  on  the 
way  which  has  been  ])repared  for  it  towards  its 
station,  which  must  be  duly  reached  at  the 
appointed  minute.  But,  as  we  look  at  it,  we  love 
to  think  that  human  intelligence  has  planned 
it ;  we  are  relieved  when  we  are  able  to  believe 
that  a  conscientious  skill  is  guiding  it ;  we  love 
to  see  it  bearing  human  beings  along  with  it 
on  errands  of  business  or  of  pleasure ;  and  we 
would  not  choose  that  there  should  be  nothing 
in  our  world  but  iron-bound  roads  and  unrelent- 
ing machineiy;  nay,  we  long  at  times  to  get 
away  from  it,  to  be  out  of  the  reach  of  its  smoke 
and  the  sound  of  its  clanking  wheels  and  rails, 
and  we  steal  away  through  some  green  loan- 
ing scarcely  knowing,  and  not  wishing  to  know, 
whither  we  are  being  carried  ;  or  we  march  up 
into  the  clear  mountain,  where,  as  we  breathe 
the  bracing  breeze  of  heaven,  we  forget  that 
there   is   mechanism,   or  remember   it   only   to 


OF  THE  SUPEENATURAL.  93 

rejoice  that  we  are  above  it.  In  like  manner, 
while  we  should  ever  acknowledge  that  it  is  a 
good  thing  that  there  is  mechanical  power  in 
our  world,  and  that  it  moves  in  such  fixed 
grooves,  and  according  to  such  measured  stages, 
and  while  we  take  advantage  of  all  this  for  the 
purposes  of  profit  and  gratification,  and  after 
wandering  away  from  it  into  more  inviting 
regions,  we  are  glad  to  come  back  to  it,  to  help 
us  on  our  earthly  way ; — yet  there  is  something 
within  us  which  will  not  allow  us  to  rest  in  these 
mechanical  movements  of  nature  ;  somethincr 
which  constrains  us  to  look  on  physical  force 
as  the  manifestation  of  the  Divine  power,  and 
is  relieved  when  it  can  look  on  the  arrangements 
according  to  which  it  acts^as  made  by  the  Divine 
skill ;  and  which  ever  allures  us  to  rise  into  a 
more  elevated  and  a  purer  region,  whence  we  may 
look  down  on  all  this,  and  trace  its  studiously  re- 
ticulated plan,  or  lose  sight  of  all  this  as  we  gaze 
into  the  heavens,  and  behold  there  still  more 
glorious  objects  looking  down  upon  us  so  j^urely 
and  benignantly  from  their  lofty  spheres,  where, 
no  doubt,  they  are  not  lawless,  but  Vvhere  their 
law  is  justice  and  their  operation  is  love. 

§  9. 

The  man  of  aesthetic  taste  tells  us  how  much 
pleasure  he  enjoys  in  communion  with  nature. 


94  THE  NATURAL  A  MANIFESTATION 

And  it  "is  a  good  thing  for  us  to  be  able  to  enter, 
as  it  were,  into  the  feehng  of  God's  works,  to  allow 
our  soul  to  take,  as  the  sea  does  when  placid, 
the  colour  of  the  sky  above  it, — to  reflect,  as 
the  lake  does,  the  trees  and  hills  on  its  banks  : — 
to  be  refreshed,  for  example,  with  the  freshness 
of  the  air  of  heaven,  or  to  be  enlivened  by  the 
purling  of  the  stream,  or  to  enter  fully  into  the 
gloom  of  the  deep  woods ;  to  catch  thoroughly 
the  revival  of  the  morning,  to  brace  ourselves  up 
to  the  activity  of  the  day,  to  reflect  from  our 
spirits,  like  burnished  windows,  the  glow  of  sun- 
set, and  to  sink  into  quiescence,  like  the  twilight 
which  succeeds,  ere  night  comes  like  death  to 
close  the  scene  ;  or  to  feel  our  souls  bursting 
with  life  like  the  buds  in  spring,  and  melted  and 
softened  by  the  heat  and  beauty  of  summer,  and 
striving  after  an  exuberant  fruitfulness  like  that 
of  the  fields  in  autumn,  and  taking  the  pensive 
hues  of  the  leaves  in  the  declining  year,  and 
coming  under  the  melancholy  of  the  falling  leaf, 
and  realizing  the  need  of  shelter  as  we  look  out 
on  the  ravings  of  the  storm  in  winter.  But  all 
this  does  not  rise  to  true  fellowship,  and  we  shall, 
in  the  end,  be  miserably  disappointed  if  we  look 
upon  it  as  such  ;  the  soul  will  ever  be  driven  back 
upon  itself  in  utter  loneliness  if  it  does  not  find 
a  living  agent  in  the  midst  of  the  scenes.  That 
is  the  noblest  beauty,  which  is  associated  with 


OF  THE  SUPERNATURAL.-  95 

life, — tbjit  is  the  highest  subhmity,  which  is  asso- 
ciated^ with  power ;  dissever  the  two,  as  we  do 
when  we  cut  off  God's  works  from  God,  and 
nature  wdll  appear  as  a  branch  cut  off  from  the 
tree — w^e  feel  that  we  would  soon  have  to  cast  it 
away,  or  as  a  stream  cut  off  from  its  fountain — 
w^e  feel  that  its  moving  power  is  gone.  Though 
we  may  admire  line  statues,  we  would  not  choose 
to  be  shut  up  in  a  hall  of  marble  figures ;  w^e 
would  weary  even  of  a  picture  gallery,  w^ith  all 
its  symbolic  influence  and  its  rich  suggestions, 
if  we  had  to  dwell  in  it  for  ever ;  and,  on  a  like 
principle,  we  would  become  tired  of  the  very 
grandeur  of  our  world,  if  the  miages  of  life  and 
love  weie  finally  discovered  to  be  without  a 
reality.  Have  not  all  of  us  felt  nature  to  be 
awfully  cold  and  distant,  as  w^e  looked  upon  its 
never-moving  mountains,  or  into  these  depths  of 
stars  so  pure  but  so  little  interested  in  us  ? — we 
have  felt  how  unbearably  lonely  it  would  be  to 
dwell  in  a  world  in  which  there  was  nothing  but 
these.  The  soul  is  not  satisfied  even  wdth  tlie 
multitude  of  men  and  women  on  the  earth's  sur- 
face,— most  of  us  must  have  felt  at  times  terribly 
solitary  in  a  great  city.  We  long  for  communion, 
but  it  must  be  a  reciprocal  communion,  and  our 
fellowship  with  nature  is  gone  when  we  look 
upon  all  as  dead.  Those  of  us  who  see  nothing 
in  an  idol  but  a  dead  image,  can  never  bring  our- 


96  THE  NATURAL  A  MANIFESTATION 

selves  to  worship  it,  however  beautifully  it  may 
be  carved.  We  would  feel  our  prayers  coming 
back  upon  us  with  a  chilling  influence,  like 
breath  going  up  in  warm  moisture,  and  coming 
back  in  rain  or  snow,  were  we  required  to  put  up 
our  petitions  to  the  cold  mountains,  or  the  frosty 
stars  ;  for  we  know  full  well  that  they  do  not  hear 
us,  that  they  do  not  reciprocate  our  feelings,  that 
they  cannot  help  us.  The  soul  does  crave  for 
fellowship,  but  it  must  be  with  a  living  being 
who  knows  what  we  feel,  and  returns  the  feeling  ; 
and  nature  can  help  us  in  all  this,  only  as  its 
forms  and  aspects  are  viewed  as  the  symbols  of 
Divine  life  and  Divine  love. 

§  10. 

Our  internal  position  and  our  inward  feelings 
both  impress  us  with  the  idea  that  the  natural  is 
encompassed  all  round  by  the  supernatural,  as 
the  world  is  by  the  "welkin."  After  all,  our 
Cosmos  is  not  the  rh  ntav,  though  there  are 
some  who  so  represent  it ;  it  is  only  to  the 
whole  what  the  earth  is  to  the  Cosmos ;  like 
the  earth,  it  is  a  globe,  and  it  is  in  a  sense 
independent,  but  in  a  higher  sense  it,  and  man 
who  dwells  on  it,  hang,  or  are  made  to  stand, 
through  a  binding  power  like  the  gravitation 
which  binds  our  system  into  one  ;  and  influences 
are  shed  upon  them  from  a  higher  sphere,  bene- 


OF  THE  SUPERNATURAL.  97 

ficent  as  the  light  of  sun  and  of  stars.  The  heauty 
in  our  visible  Cosmos  is  merely  like  the  sheen  of 
stars  in  the  waters  of  our  earth,  the  reflection 
of  the  glory  of  a  supra-mundane  region.  Pursue 
any  one  line,  starting  from  the  earth,  or  the  pre- 
sent, or  self  as  a  centre,  and  it  it  runs  out, — with 
space — into  the  infinite, — which  is  supernatural. 
Follow  the  links  of  causation  upwards,  and 
the  mind  insists  that  the  chain  must  hang  on 
the  uncaused,— which  is  supernatural.  As  we 
go  down  from  one  dependency  of  being  to 
another,  the  reason  comes  to  independent  sub- 
stance,— which  is  supernatural.  As  we  go  back 
into  the  past,  the  stream,  as  we  mount  it,  leads 
us  to  a  fountain  which  is  its  own  original, — and 
the  unoriginated  is  the  supernatural.  If  we  go 
out  into  the  future,  with  the  soul  as  it  leaves  the 
body,  we  are  in  the  unending  world  to  come, — 
which  is  supernatural. 

In  all  his  deeper  moods,  man  is  made  to  feel 
his  dependence  upon,  his  nearness  to,  the  supers 
natural.  The  hope  of  it  cheers  him  in  his 
temporal  difficulties;  and  he  feels  he  can  ever 
appeal  to  it,  as  a  just  tribunal,  from  present  dis- 
order and  injustice.  The  darkness  of  night 
shews  us  objects  which  are  concealed  in  the 
light  of  day — for  it  is  when  the  glare  of  sunlight 
has  died  out  that  we  see  those  stars  and  constel- 
lations in  the  height  of  heaven;  and,  in  like 

G 


98  TEE  NATURAL  A  MANIFHSTATION 

manner,  there  are  high  heavenly  hghts  discerned 
by  the  spirit  of  man  in  the  darkness  of  adversity, 
which  may  not  he  perceived  in  the  sunshine  of 
prosperity.  I  heheve  that  the  fear  of  a  super- 
natural power  haunts  man — as  his  sins  do — more 
or  less  consciously,  all  the  time  he  is  on  earth ; 
and  a  judgment*  seat,  from  which  he  cannot 
escape,  is  ever  seen  by  him  standing  at  the  close 
of  life.  In  particular,  every  human  being  is 
made  to  feel  himself  very  near  the  supernatural 
as  he  contemplates  death — the  death  of  a  fellow- 
man  or  his  own  death ; — he  feels  that  something 
is  about  to  depart,  or  has  departed,  into  the  super- 
natural. Surely  he  who  believes  that  something 
thus  goes  out  from  our  world  into  another,  will 
not  be  inclined  dogmatically  to  affirm  that  there 
may  not  also  come  something  from  that  other 
world  into  this,  were  it  only  to  train  the  young 
immortal  in  its  mortal  sphere,  for  its  immortahty 
in  the  sphere  beyond. 

§  11- 

This  thought,  like  every  other  profound 
thought,  brings  us  to  the  profoundest  thought 
in  the  universe — to  the  sin  which  opens  like  a 
fathomless  gulf  below,  facing  the  brightness  of 
the  Divine  holiness  which  shines  from  above, 
but  cannot  dispel  the  gloom  beneath.  He  who 
does  not  see  this  is  overlooking  the  most  mys- 


OF  TEE  SVPERKATURAL.  99 

terious  fact  in  our  world,  the  deepest  fact  in 
our  nature ;  it  is  as  if  a  man  were  to  visit  one 
of  our  great  cities  and  look  only  at  its  palaces 
and  its  temples,  and  go  nowhere  else  than  to  its 
festivals  and  its  banquets — never  entering  those 
lanes  where  poverty  would  hide  itself,  or  taking 
any  notice  of  those  haunts  where  sinful  pleasure 
revels,  or  of  those  sinks  behind  them,  into  which 
iniquity  at  last  pours  itself.  Surely  he  who  looks 
into  this  fearful  abyss,  and  feels  that  he  is  being 
driven  into  its  awful  depths,  may  well  be  glad 
and  grateful  when  told  that  God  has  interposed 
his  arm  to  save  us. 

§  12. 
It  is  in  very  proportion  as  mankind  see  God  in 
the  natural,  that  they  are  disposed  to  look  for  a 
supernatural  manifestation.  He  w^ho  does  not 
see  God  in  his  works  in  the  world,  will  in  no  way 
be  inclined  to  look  for  higher  operations.  He 
who  contemplates  exclusively  the  mechanical  or 
instrumental  portions  of  the  universe  will  discover 
nothing  to  lead  him  to  look  for  the  interposition 
of  a  spiritual  remedy  to  meet  a  spiritual  evil. 
He  is  prepared  to  believe  in  a  supernatural  ap- 
pearance who  thoroughly  discerns  God  in  the 
natural,  and  he  is  best  prepared  who  looks  up  to 
the  highest  glories,  and  looks  down  into  the 
deepest  mysteries  of  the  universe.     He  who  looks 


100  TEE  NATURAL  A  MANIFESTATIOX. 

on  all  these  objects  in  earth  and  sky  as  the  works 
of  God,  -will  easily  believe  that  he  may  have  other 
works.  He  who  looks  on  these  powers  of  nature 
as  agents  of  God,  will  at  once  acknowledge  that 
he  may  turn  them  to  whatever  uses  he  pleases. 
He  who  discovers  God  making  provision  for  the 
most  minute  temporal  wants  of  his  creatures, 
will  not  be  inclined  to  scoif  at  an  arrangement 
which,  be  it  mundane  or  supra-mundane,  makes 
provision  for  the  relief  of  man's  spiritual  wants. 
He  who  looks  on  nature  as  an  apparatus  of  means 
to  support  moral  ends,  will  not  be  indisposed,  as 
these  bulk  largely  before  his  view,  to  believe  that 
God  will  employ  every  means,  be  it  natural  or  be 
it  supernatural,  to  promote  these  ends.  He  who 
looks  on  God  as  the  author  of  all  excellence,  and 
as  delighting  above  all  things  in  moral  good,  and 
hating  sin  supremely,  and  who  discerns  sin  raging 
as  a  fire  in  the  fairest  portions  of  our  world,  and 
who  has,  after  looking  above  him,  and  around 
him,  and  within  him,  come  to  the  conviction 
that,  if  left  to  itself,  the  fire  must  go  on  devouring 
and  consuming  for  ever,  on  the  materials  supplied 
by  the  corrupt  human  heart,  will  surely  rejoice  to 
learn  that  God  has  interposed  to  extinguish  the 
flames. 

We  are  not  yet  in  the  region  of  the  supernatural, 
but  we  feel  that  we  are  on  the  very  verge  of  it, 
and  that  it  may  soon  appear. 


BOOK   SECOND. 


THE   SUPERNATURAL   IN   RELATION   TO    THE 
NATURAL. 


CHAPTER  I. 

GENERAL  REMARKS  ON  THE  SUPERNATURAL. 
SECT,  I.— THE  PRECISE  NATURE  OF  THE  SUPERNATURAL. 

We  have  seen  that  m  this  world  there  is  a  set 
of  objects  and  agencies  which  constitute  a  sys- 
tem or  Cosmos,  which  may  have  relations  to 
regions  beyond,  but  is,  all  the  while,  a  self-con- 
tained sphere  with  a  space  around  it — an  island 
separated  so  far  from  other  lands.  This  system 
we  call  "  Nature,"  and  the  events  produced  by 
tlie  agencies  we  call  "  Natural."  The  beings 
above  this  sphere,  and  the  agents  beyond  it, 
though  it  may  be  acting  on  it,  we  call  "  Superna- 
tural." God,  who  created  the  cosmical  agencies 
and  set  them  in  operation,  is  himself  super- 
natural.    When  a  supernatural  being  or  power 


102 


GENERAL  REMARKS 


operates  in  nature,  we  call  the  work  supernatural. 
The  effect  is  among  cosraical  objects,  it  is 
wrought  in  men's  minds  or  bodies,  or  in  physical 
nature  around  them.  It  is  thus  only  that  it  can 
fall  under  our  experience,  internal  or  external, 
under  our  consciousness  or  under  our  senses. 
But  the  power  to  produce  that  effect,  and  the 
agent  in  whom  that  power  resides,  do  not  lie 
within  mundane  potencies,  but  in  a  region  abo^e 
and  beyond.  •  The  w^ork  of  creation  is  super- 
natural, it  is  a  work  in  nature  proceeding  from 
a  power  above  nature.  The  raising  of  the  dead 
would  be  supernatural,  for  there  is  no  pliysical 
or  physiological  law  capable  of  producing  such  a 
result. 

By  this  representation  we  are  saved  from  cer- 
tain mistaken  views  as  to  both  the  natural  and 
the  supernatural. 

We  see  that  in  representing  an  event  as  na- 
tural we  are  not  placing  it  out  of  the  dominion 
of  God — for  we  put  the  whole  of  nature  under 
its  Maker.  A  natural  event  is  produced  by 
natural  causes,  but  these  causes  have  been  in- 
stituted by  God.  I  believe  that  Deity  is  work- 
ing in  them,  as  he  is  certainly  working  by  them. 
We  see,  farther,  that  a  new,  a  wonderful,  a  start- 
ling, an  anomalous  event  is  not,  therefore,  super- 
natural. The  sun  setting  in  the  tropics  about 
six    o'clock,  is   not   supernatural ;    nor   is   it  a 


ON  TEE  STIFERNATURAL.  103 

miracle  when,  in  the  arctic  regions,  his  hght 
lingers  on  the  earth  for  months  without  a  night. 
Just  as  the  sun,  in  his  daily  rising  and  setting,  is 
not  preternatural,  so  neither  is  the  moon  in  her 
more  irregular  course,  nor  are  the  planets  in  all 
their  wanderings,  nor  the  comets  in  their  widest 
eccentricities.  The  meteor  flashing  across  the 
sky  is  the  work  of  God,  hut  it  is  not  a  super- 
natural work,  nor  is  the  awful  thunder,  nor  the 
swdft  lightning,  nor  the  pestilence  as  it  llieth  in 
darkness  and  visits  a  city  to  decimate  its  in- 
habitants. It  is  not  a  miracle  when  a  tower 
stands,  nor  is  it  a  miracle  when  it  falls  and  kills 
"thirteen"  persons,  while  others  may  escape. 
It  is  not  supernatural,  but  natural,  when  the 
ship  sails  along  buoyantly  in  the  favourable 
breeze ;  and  it  is  not  supernatural,  but  natural, 
when  it  is  wrecked  by  a  storm  which  arose,  as 
it  passed  a  rugged  coast,  and  drove  it  upon  the 
rocks.  It  was  certainly  by  the  appointment  of 
God,  but  it  was  quite  by  natural  agency,  that 
ninety-nine  persons  in  the  ship  perished,  while 
one  was  saved ;  it  behoves  that  one  to  bless  the 
Lord  for  his  w^onderful  escape,  and  his  gratitude 
should  not  be  lessened  when  he  discovers  that  God 
has  accomplished  it  by  a  particular  whirl  of  wind, 
raising  a  fortunate  wave  which  brought  a  fragment 
of  floating  wreck  to  him,  and  drove  it  on  to  the 
shore  as  he  clung  to  it  in  despairing  agonies. 


104  GENERAL  REMARKS 

We  have  seen  (Bk.  I.  chap,  ii.)  that  in  nature 
every  substance  is  endowed  with  certain  proper- 
ties, which  act  on  the  needful  conditions  being 
supphed  ;  that  the  objects  are  so  disposed  as  to 
result  in  general  laws ;  and  that  there  is  a  large 
but  limited  body  of  these  substances  with  their 
powers  in  nature.  Let  us  inquire  how  a  super- 
natural or  miraculous  event  stands  in  regard  to 
each  of  these  peculiarities  of  the  natural. 

I.  In  regard  to  the  natural  endowments  or 
tendencies  of  natural  objects,  they  are  in  no  way 
destroyed  by  the  supernatural  action.  No  one 
reckons  the  nature  or  the  action  of  a  natural 
substance  as  annihilated  when  it  is  restrained  or 
directed  by  other  natural  agents.  It  is  the  ten- 
dency of  the  earth's  gravity  to  draw  all  bodies  to 
its  surface;  but  this  quality  is  not  extinguished, 
it  is  merely  counteracted  in  the  circumstances, 
when  we  hold  a  stone  in  our  hand  and  keep  it 
from  falling.  A  blow  is  directed  against  us, 
v/hicli  would  fell  us  to  the  ground,  a  bystander 
interposes  his  staff,  and  we  escaj)e,  and  in  the 
whole  we  have  only  each  agent  acting  according 
to  its  nature.  It  is  the  same  when  a  super- 
natural power  interposes.  It  is  the  tendency  of 
fire  to  burn,  and  this  tendency  it  must  ever 
retain,  as  long  as  the  substances  acting  in  the 
fire  keep  their  endowments ;  but  this  tendency 
may   be    counteracted  by   other   agents,   either 


ox  TEE  SUFERKATURAL.  105 

natural  or  supernatural ;  it  may  be  counteracted 
by  natural  agents,  as  by  water  thrown  upon  it, 
or  it  may  be  counteracted  by  the  immediate 
power  of  God,  as  when  it  was  not  allowed  to 
consume  the  three  children  of  Israel  who  were 
thrown  into  the  fiery  furnace  in  Babylon, — but 
the  fire  all  the  while  retained  its  power,  as  was 
shewn  by  its  consuming  those  who  threw  them 
in,  and  it  was  restrained  by  the  power  of  God 
only,  as  it  might  have  been  curbed  by  cosmical 
powers. 

II.  In  regard  to  the  general  laws  or  obvious 
uniformities  of  nature,  it  should  be  allowed  that 
miracles  do  not  fall  out  in  accordance  with  them. 
These  general  laws  serve  most  bountiful  pur- 
poses. It  is  because  of  their  prevalence  that 
man  can  so  far  anticipate  the  future,  and  draw 
towards  him  the  good  and  ward  off  the  evil.  A 
system  of  things  in  which  miracles  were  ever 
interfering  with  the  established  order  or  course 
of  things, — so  that  no  one  could  commence  a 
course  of  action  with  any  assurance  that  it  would 
not  be  disturbed  by  some  interposition  from  with- 
out,— would  certainly  not  be  suited  to  man,  with 
his  present  nature  and  constitution.  But  it  is 
to  be  observed,  that  even  in  the  natural  system 
there  is  such  a  disposition  of  agents  that  unex- 
pected events  are  ever  occurring,  fitted  to  impress 
him  with  his  dependence  on  a  higher  power  and 


106 


GENERAL  REMARKS 


wisdom  than  his  own.  He  who  sows  in  spring 
will  usually  reap  in  autumn,  and  he  who  follows 
industry  will  commonly  secure  a  worldly  compe- 
tence;  yet  the  hest  laid  plans  of  man  will,  at 
times^  he  so  frustrated  that  he  has  little  or  no 
crop,  and  he  who  has  heen  dihgent  in  his  calhng, 
may,  after  all,  be  left  in  poverty.  Often  when 
our  confidence  was  the  greatest,  are  we  made  to 
say — "  I  returned  and  saw  under  the  sun,  that 
the  race  is  not  to  the  swift,  nor  the  battle  to  the 
strong,  neither  yet  bread  to  the  wise,  nor  yet 
riches  to  men  of  understanding,  nor  yet  favour 
to  men  of  skill,  but  time  and  chance  happeneth 
to  them  all."  While  a  constant  and  capricious 
miraculous  interference  with  the  plan  of  nature 
might  disturb  all  the  principles  of  probability  on 
which  men  usually  act, — all  such,  for  instance, 
as  those  on  which  insurance  offices  proceed, — no 
such  prejudicial  effects  could  follow  from  an  oc- 
casional miracle  wdiich  would  lessen  human  fore- 
sight and  limit  human  sagacity  only  to  a  small 
and  un appreciable  extent,  beyond  the  restraints 
already  laid  on  them  by  the  cross  events  of  pro- 
vidence. And  it  may  be  observed,  of  the  mira- 
culous interferences  of  God  brought  before  us  in 
Scripture,  that  they  are  only  occasional.  In  all 
the  dispensations  of  God,  general  laws  have  been 
the  rule,  and  miracles  the  rare  exceptions — so 
rare  as  not  to  interfere  with  the  anticipations  of 


ON  THE  SUPERNATURAL. 


10^ 


human  wisdom.  Twice  only  did  our  Lord,  when 
on  eartli,  distribute  food  in  a  miraculous  way, 
and  when  the  people  began  to  trust  in  this  mode 
of  procedure,  he  ceased  to  make  any  such  provi- 
sion for  them  ;  and  his  other  miracles — such  as 
the  healing  of  the  sick  (as  Dr.  Chalmers  has 
remarked),  had  no  tendency  to  induce  im- 
prudent expectations,  as  no  one  would  be 
likely  to  bring  on  bodily  disease  in  the  hope 
of  having  it  cured  by  the  power  of  Jesus.  The 
miraculous  interpositions  of  God  have  never 
tended,  in  any  way,  to  lessen  men's  motives 
to  industry  and  activity.  They  have  ever  been 
so  introduced  into  the  natural,  as  to  honour 
the  natural, — I  mean  the  sinless  natural, — and 
allow  it  to  fulfil  its  full  intention.  Not  only  so, 
I  hope  to  be  able  to  shew  that  they  have  been 
wrought  upon  a  plan  or  system,  analogous  in 
many  respects  to  the  .system  of  nature,  and  that 
in  the  supernatural,  as  in  the  natural,  there  are 
order  and  law,  ^which  enlarge  our  wisdom  by 
shewing  us  new  and  more  spiritual  relations  of 
things,  which  quicken  our  energies  by  the  liberal 
blessings  that  may  be  obtained  in  the  use  of 
appointed  means,  and  extend  our  foresight,  by  the 
telescopic  views  opened,  of  far  distant  scenes  in 
the  earth  of  the  future,  and  in  the  kingdom  of 
heaven. 

III.  In  regard  to  the  circle  of  agents  acting 


108 


GENERAL  REMARKS 


in  nature,  a  supernatural  event  is  caused  by  an 
agent  from  a  region  l)e3'ond  them.  It  serves  its 
end  because  it  is  so/'-'  But  then  it  is  the  effect 
of  a  power,  of  the  existence  of  which  we  have 
evidence  in  the  action  of  nature — a  power  which 
is,  in  fact,  ever  operating  in  nature,  though  after 
a  somewhat  different  mode. 

The  account  now  given  imphes,  that  in  the 
discovery  of  the  supernatural,  there  is  a  process 
of  inference  in  which  we  rise  from  the  effect  to 
the  cause.  An  objection,  founded  on  this  cir- 
cumstance, has  been  started,  to  the  possibihty 
of  proving  a  miracle.      AVe  can  never,  it  has 


*  The  pantheistic  Spinoza  defines  miracle — "  Opus  cujus  causam  na- 
turalera  exemplo  alterius  rei  solitae  explicare  non  possumus,  vel  saltern 
ipse  non  potest,  qui  miraculum  scribit  aut  narrat." — {Tract.  Thcol.-Pol.  : 
vi.  13.)  According  to  this  view,  a  miracle  is  something  which  we 
cannot,  or  which  those  who  narrate  it  cannot  explain  by  natural  law, 
but  which  has  always  a  natural  cause.  It  could  easily  be  shewn  that 
this  defective  view  influenced  the  speculations  of  the  German  rational- 
ists of  the  end  of  last  century  and  beginning  of  this,  when  they  (g.e. 
Paulus)  set  themselves  with  such  preposterous  ingenuity  to  discover  a 
natural  explanation  of  the  miracles  of  Scripture.  It  might  also  be 
shewn  that  this  swayed  Schlclermacher  (who  had  such  an  admiration  of 
Spinoza)  when  he  represents  miracles  as  being  such  merely  relatively — 
that  is,  for  those  for  whom  they  were  at  first  dond,  and  springing  from 
Christ's  deeper  knowledge  of  the  natural  and  connexion  with  it  {Christl. 
Glaube) .  From  these  German  sources,  similar  defective  views  have  come 
into  our  own  country.  Some,  with  the  view  of  recommending  miracles 
to  the  exclusive  believers  in  nature,  have  taken  great  pains  to  shew  that 
tliey  proceed  from  higher  natural  law;  while  others,  or  the  same, 
represent  the  higher  sentiments  of  gifted  men  as  inspired.  AVe  shall  see 
infra  that  this  is  to  strip  miracles  of  their  peculiarities,  and  to  make 
them  incapable  of  fulfilling  the  end  designed  by  them. 


ON  THE  SUPERNATURAL.  109 

been  said,  see  a  miracle,  we  can  merely  see  an 
event  which  we  argue  to  be  miraculous,  and  the 
argument  must  carry  us  into  very  recondite  con- 
siderations, which  metaphysicians  only  can  un- 
ravel, or  perplex  as  they  would  unravel.     This 
objection  can  seem  plausible  only  to  those  who 
have   contracted   a  senseless   prejudice   against 
metaphysics,   and  are  utterly  ignorant  of  their 
nature  and  their  office.     For  every  one  who  has 
studied  the  operations  of  the  human  mind  knows, 
that  in  the  case  of  all  our  convictions,  except 
those  which  are  intuitive,   there    is   reasoning, 
and  commonly  reasoning  from   effect  to  cause. 
The  metaphysician  has  proven  that  we  do  not 
see  distance — that  we  do  not  know  intuitively 
the  distance  of  the  house  or  hill — we  infer  it 
from  what  we  see.     We  do  not  see  the  love  or 
the  anger  that  burns  in  the  bosom  of  a  fellow- 
man,  we  conclude  it  from  the  expression  of  his 
countenance,   from    his  manner,   or  his  words. 
A  body  is  seen  lacerated  on  the  ground, — this  is 
all  we  perceive, — and  when  we  declare  that  a 
man  has  been  murdered,  and  go  on  to  seek  out 
the  guilty  party,  we  are  arguing,  and  arguing 
from  effect  to  cause.     Such  inferences,  indeed, 
are  involved  in  the  convictions  which  we  form 
and  act    upon    in   all    tlie    ordinary    affairs    of 
life,  and  he  who  would  refuse  to  accept  them 
must  needs  £jo  out  of  the  world.     In  all  such 


110  GENERAL  RE 21  ARKS 

cases  the  process  is  a  simple  one,  (indeed  it  is 
only  the  metaphysician  who  knows  that  there  is 
ratiocination) ;  but  the  inference  is  equally  easy, 
when,  from  the  fact  given,  that  a  man  has  risen 
from  the  grave,  we  conclude  that  a  supernatural 
power  has  been  exercised. 

It  should  be  allowed  that  we  are  not  entitled 
to  look  on  an  occurrence  as  supernatural  unless 
we  are  satisfied,  not  only  that  it  cannot  be  ex- 
plained by  known  law,  but  that  it  is  beyond  the 
power  of  natural  agencies.  We  do  not  reckon 
the  disease  which  has  blighted  the  potato  plant 
for  so  many  years  as  miraculous,  nor  do  we 
reckon  the  cholera  as  supernatural  in  its  mys- 
terious visits,  because  science  has  not  been  able 
to  detect  the  producing  causes ;  for  we  are  con- 
lident,  on  the  ground  of  induction,  that  the  cause 
does  lie  among  natural  agencies,  discoverable 
or  undiscoverable.  We  do  not  allow  that  the 
phenomena  of  mesmerism  are  miraculous,  be- 
cause we  are  not  able  at  the  present  stage  of 
physiological  and  psychological  science  to  explain 
them  thoroughly ;  we  have  an  idea  that  part  of 
the  appearances  may  be  ascribed  to  the  preten- 
sion or  deceit  of  the  operators,  and  we  are  sure 
that  the  explanation  of  what  is  real  is  to  be 
found  in  the  mysterious  agencies  which  work  in 
the  border  territory  between  mind  and  body. 
The  defender  of  miracles  must  be  prepared  to 


ON  THE  SUPERNATURAL.  Ill 

accept  the  responsibility  of  shewing,  not  only 
that  the  occurrences  are  inexplicable,  but  that 
tliey  are  beyond  the  capacity  of  natural  agency. 

The  principle  now  announced  enables  us  to 
draw  sharply  the  distinction  between  the  higher 
moods  of  the  natural  man  and  the  inspiration  of 
God.     Eveiy  one,  I  should  hope,  has  felt  him- 
self carried  at  times  into  a  high  mental  region, 
where  he  has  breathed  a  purer,  or  at  least  a  more 
stimulating  atmosphere,  and  got  glimpses  of  far 
distances.     These  are  precious  moments  in  the 
midst  of  the  worldliness  by  which  we  are  held 
down  to  the  damp  surface   and  the  clay  of  our 
earth.     There  are  men  who  have  been  privileged 
to  rise  more  frequently,  and  to  dwell  more  habi- 
tually  in  these  higher  regions.     How  expanded 
tlie  view  which  opened  to  Plato,  as  he  speculated 
on  the  relation  of  God,  of  the  soul,  and  of  the 
world  !     How  pure  and  spiritual  the  air  in  which 
the  bard  of  Paradise  Lost  and  Paradise  Regained 
habitually  breathes  !     At  such  times — alas,  how 
rare  ! — but  at  such  moments — alas,  they  are  but 
moments  ! — we  feel  as  if  we  were  inspired  by  a 
higher  life  ;   and  not  unfrequently  have  persons 
under  the  influence  of  these  high  impulses  been 
said  to  be  inspired.     The  language  is  not  inap- 
propriate ;  it  contains  a  great  truth.    These  occa- 
sional uprisings  of  the  water  shew  how  high  the 
elevation  from  which  man  has  descended,  and  to 


112  GENERAL  BE  MARKS 

what  a  height  he  may  yet  be  raised.  They  are  the 
hngering  hght  of  a  sun  which  has  set,  but  which 
once  shone  upon  our  earth ;  they  are  the  dawn 
of  a  hght  which  may  yet  appear.  But,  after  all, 
these  moods  are  in  the  region  of  the  natural, 
and  not  of  the  supernatural.  As  we  look  up  to 
these  heights,  and  as  we  ascend  them,  we  may  be 
tempted  to  think  that  we  are  mounting  into  the 
sky,  but  we  are,  ever  and  anon,  made  to  feel  that 
we  are  only  on  one  of  the  mountains  of  the 
earth.  We  would  detain  these  moods — as  w^e 
have  often  wished  to  detain  the  long  and  plea- 
sant light  of  summer — as  we  have  often  wished 
to  prolong  the  glow  of  the  evening  sky — but  it  is 
all  in  vain,  the  light  departs  in  spite  of  all  our 
efforts  to  keep  it — it  fades  into  darkness  as  we 
gaze  upon  it.  As  we  linger  on  these  heights  we 
are  wrapt  in  mist  and  cloud  before  we  are  aware, 
and  had  better  descend  quickly  to  a  lower  and 
a  safer  level.  If,  through  pride  and  presump- 
tion, we  seek  to  loose  ourselves  altogether  from 
terrestrial  influences,  we  shall  find,  as  we  w^ould 
moimt  on  the  wings  we  have  formed,  that  the  w^ax 
melts,  and  our  flight  ends  in  a  fall — a  fall  into 
vain  fancies  and  deceptions.  How  often  have 
those  who  have  thus  tempted  the  Lord  their  God, 
by  striving  to  reach  a  dizzy  point,  and  by  cast- 
ing themselves  down  thence  without  any  promise 
of  help  to  stay  them,  only  fallen  ignominiously 


ON  THE  SUPERNATURAL,  113 

amid  the  scoffs  and  jeers  of  men.  The  weak- 
ness by  which  even  the  best  of  such  have  been 
beset,  and  the  mistakes  into  which  they  have 
fallen,  shew^  that  they  have  never  been  under  the 
inspiration  of  a  Divine  and  unerring  wisdom. 
Still  these  convulsions  shew  what  man  is  capa- 
ble of;  the  remains  of  man's  strength,  they  are 
evidences  of  what  he  could  do  if  complete  health 
w^ere  restored.  They  are  not  inspirations,  except 
in  a  metaphorical  sense,  but  they  show  the  pos- 
sibility and  desirableness  of  such  an  inspiration, 
should  God  in  his  grace  be  pleased  to  grant  it. 

But  it  has  been  urged,  that  upon  the  condition 
now  laid  down  we  can  never  prove  a  miracle,  as 
it  is  beyond  the  capacity  of  man  to  tell  what 
powers  are  in  nature.  You  may  shew  us,  it  is 
said,  a  phenomenon  inexplicable  in  our  present 
state  of  knowledge,  but  this  does  not  prove  it  to 
be  beyond  agencies  of  nature  as  yet  undiscovered 
by  man.  We  do  not  know,  it  is  said,  the  nature 
of  the  sun's  atmosphere,  nor  of  the  composition 
of  the  comets,  nor  of  the  forces  which  operate 
in  the  production  of  the  crystalline  structure  of 
minerals,  nor  of  the  ether  which  seems  to  vibrate 
through  all  nature  ;  but  no  one  supposes  any  one 
of  these  to  be  produced  by  angelic  or  satanic 
influence,  or  by  the  Divine  power  acting  apart 
from  a  physical  cause.  The  progress  of  science, 
it  is  urged,  is  ever   disclosmg   new  powers  in 

II 


114  GENERAL  REMARKS 

nature,  of  which  those  who  hved  in  former  times 
had  no  idea,  or  of  which  they  caught  merely  im- 
perfect ghmpses.  It  is  only  in  modern  times 
that  we  have  any  adequate  conceptions  of  the 
mighty  influence  exercised  hy  electricity  and  hy 
magnetism  ;  only  of  late  years  that  we  have  had 
any  notion  of  there  heing  such  varied  powers  in 
the  sunbeam.  Who  can  say,  in  these  circum* 
stances,  that  there  may  not,  among  the  yet 
undiscovered  powers  of  nature,  be  agents  capa- 
ble of  explaining  all  these  occurrences  which  we 
represent  as  miraculous  ?  "  What  is  alleged  is 
a  case  of  the  supernatural,  but  no  testimony  can 
reach  to  the  supernatural ;  testimony  can  apply 
only  to  apparent  sensible  facts  ;  testimony  can 
only  prove  an  extraordinary,  and,  perhaps,  inex- 
plicable occurrence  or  phenomenon ;  that  it  is 
due  to  supernatural  causes  is  entirely  dependent 
on  the  previous  belief  and  assumptions  of  the 
parties.""^' 

The  answer  to  all  this  is  so  very  easy  and 
obvious,  that  I  give  little  credit  for  candour  to 
those  who  have  not  seen  it.  It  is  all  true  that 
we  do  not  know  the  extent  of  the  powers  of 
nature,  but,  then,  there  are  some  things  of  which 
we  are  quite  certain  that  they  are  not  within  the 
range  of  natural  agency.  We  certainly  do  not 
know  anything  like  all  the  powers,  psychological 

*  Baden  Powell,  in  "Essays  and  Remws,"  p.  107. 


ox  TEE  S  UPERXA  TURAL.  1 1  -3 

or  physiological,  which  operate  in  man's  mind  or 
bodily  organization,  but  there  are  some  exertions 
of  which  we  are  quite  sure  that  they  are  beyond 
human  strength.  We  give  full  credit  to  the 
recorded  instances  of  the  great  sagacity  of  New- 
ton, when  he  guessed  at  scientific  truths  which 
have  been  established  only  by  much  later  investi- 
gation, but  every  one  sees  at  once  (what  Newton 
took  such  delight  in  expounding)  that  the  greatest 
human  shrewdness — that  the  shrewdness  of  New- 
ton himself — could  not  foresee  what  the  Hebrew 
prophets  foretold  hundreds  or  thousands  of  years 
beforehand, — a  long  series  of  events,  with  minute 
incidents,  brought  about  by  a  varied  and  un- 
conscious instrumentality.  We  have  no  doubt 
of  the  accuracy  of  the  accounts  given  of  the 
wonderful  capacity  for  acquiring  a  variety  of 
languages  possessed  by  certain  individuals  ;  but 
we  know  full  well  that  uneducated  fishermen 
and  mechanics  could  not  at  once,  and  without 
being  taught,  have  addressed  a  multitude  of  per- 
sons gathered  from  a  variety  of  countries,  each  in 
his  own  language.  We  certainly  have  very  little 
acquaintance  with  the  forces  which  operate  in 
the  brain  and  nervous  systems  of  the  lower  ani- 
mals, or  with  the  instincts  which  guide  them ; 
but  we  know  enough  to  "convince  us  that  the  ass 
could  not  speak,  except  by  a  supernatural  agency 
working  in  it.     It  might  be  ditiicult  for  the  most 


116 


GENERAL  REMARKS 


skilful  physician  to  say  as  to  certain  maladies, 
whether  they  are  or  are  not  likely  to  be  cured  by 
human  art,  but  he  could  have  no  hesitation  in 
declaring  as  to  certain  organic  diseases,  that 
they  cannot  be  healed  on  the  instant,  or  at  all, 
by  natural  means.  There  is  much  about  the 
human  body  and  soul  which  must  for  ever  re- 
main concealed  from  us  in  this  world ;  but  we 
know  for  certain  that  there  is  no  power  in  any 
man  to  raise  himself  or  his  neighbour  from  the 
dead. 

In  order  to  settle  such  questions,  it  is  not 
needful  that  we  should  have  explored  all  nature, 
or  that  we  should  have  drawn  out  a  list  of  her 
forces,  and  be  able  to  specify  their  mode  of 
operation.  The  most  cursory  observation  of  the 
man  of  ordinary  sense  leads  him  at  once  to  the 
sound  conclusion.  Science,  as  it  advances,  con- 
firms the  decision.  Induction,  as  it  widens, 
shews  the  extent  of  the  dominion  of  natural 
agencies,  but  it  shews,  at  the  same  time,  that 
they  all  run  in  appointed  channels,  and  in  no 
others ;  that  they  have  all  their  fixed  amount  of 
force,  and  nothing  more;  and  the  very  progress 
of  science,  in  explaining  so  much,  enables  us, 
on  firmer  grounds,  to  declare  as  to  certain  oc- 
currences, that  they  are  altogether  and  certainly 
beyond  natural  power.  Nor  does  this  conviction 
depend,  as  Mr.  Powell  would  insinuate,  on  the 


02i  THE  S  UFERXA  TURAL.  117 

ncquirecl  sympathies,  the  inexphcable  behefs, 
and  unreasonable  assumptions  of  the  parties,  but 
on  general  principles,  discovered  by  good  sense 
and  common  observation,  and  sanctioned  by  the 
most  advanced  inductive  logic. 

While  it  should  be  admitted  that,  so  far  as 
tlie  establishment  of  the  first  miracle  is  con- 
cerned, the  burden  of  proving  that  there  is  a 
power  beyond  nature  lies  on  the  defender  of  the 
supernatural,  it  does  not  therefore  follow,  that 
the  same  stringent  condition  can  be  exacted  in 
regard  to  alleged  miraculous  occurrences,  which 
are  part  of  a  supernatural  system,  or  which 
come  in  under  cover  of  other  supernatural 
events,  shewn  to  be  so  by  the  most  rigid  rules 
of  evidence.  The  most  confident  believers  in 
natural  law  should  be  prepared  to  allow  this. 
There  are  mysterious  occurrences  in  nature, 
which  we  should  not  be  entitled  to  declare  to 
be  the  result  of  pure  cosmical  agency,  were 
it  not  settled  by  a  wide  induction,  that  general 
law  has  such  prevalence.  The  established 
uniformity  thus  carries  over  to  natural  law  many 
individual  phenomena,  of  which  we  might  not 
be  able  to  say,  if  we  looked  at  them  apart, 
whether  they  are  or  are  not  the  product  of  mun- 
dane agencies.  Surely  those  who  claim  all  this, 
as  I  think  they  are  entitled,  on  the  one  side, 
should  be  prepared  to  allow,  on  the  other,  that 


118  GENERAL  REMARKS 

if  once  it  be  established  on  strict  principles  of 
evidence,  that  one  grand  miracle  has  taken 
place,  —  say  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  from 
the  dead, — it  might  bring  in  other  miracles 
connected  with  it  on  easier  terms.  It  will  be 
shewn,  as  we  advance,  that  the  revelation  which 
God  has  been  pleased  to  make  of  himself,  in 
the  Old  and  New  Testament,  is  a  system  with 
a  compact  structure  and  organization,  and  con- 
nected means  and  end.  When  it  is  shewn  that, 
as  a  w^hole,  it  is  supernatural,  it  should  be  con- 
ceded that  portions  which  might  not,  of  them- 
selves, admit  of  being  shewn  to  be  miraculous 
by  stern  rules  of  evidence,  may  be  logically 
regarded  as  being  so,  as  carrying  with  them  the 
sanction  of  the  w^hole  of  which  they  are  parts. 


SECT.  II.— THE  POSSIBILITY  OF  A  MIRACLE. 

Spinoza,  the  father  of  modern  pantheism,  was 
the  first,  so  far  as  I  know,  who  denied  the  possi- 
bility of  a  miracle.*     He  did  so,  on  the  ground 

*  Natura  itaque  leges  et  regulas,  quae  aetemam  necessitatem  et 
veritatem  involvunt,  quam^is  omnes  nobis  notae  non  sint,  semper 
tamcn  observat,  adcoque  etiam  fixum  atque  immutabilem  ordinem ; 
nee  ulla  sana  ratio  suadet,  naturae  limitatam  potentiara  et  virtutem 
tribucre,  ejusque  leges  ad  certa  tantum  et  non  ad  omnia  aptas,  statuere. 
Nam  quum  Adrtus  et  potentia  naturae  sit  ipsa  Dei  virtus  et  potentia, 
leges  autem  et  regulae  naturae  ipsa  Dei  decreta,  omnino  credendum 
est,  potentiam  naturae  infinitam  esse  ejusque  leges  adeo  latas,  ut  ad 


Oy  THE  S  UFEENA  TURAL.  110 

that  God  and  nature  are  one,  that  the  jiotency 
and  virtue  of  nature  are  the  very  Divine  potency 
and  virtue.  This  doctrine  he  sought  to  estabhsh 
by  a  formidable  array  of  abstractions  which  he 
never  compares  with  reahties,  and  by  deductions 
from  principles  which  are  not  self-evident,  which 
are  not  sanctioned  by  reason,  and  some  of  which 
are  obviously  false.  In  the  great  metaphysical 
ferment  which  was  stirred  up  in  Germany,  the 
last  quarter  of  last  century  and  the  first  quarter 
of  this,  a  large  body  of  the  speculators  were 
seized  with  a  most  extravagant  admiration  of  the 
"  thought  bewildered"  spectacle-grinder  of  Hol- 
land, and  a  number  of  them  arrived  at  much 
the  same  view  as  he  did  in  regard  to  miracles. 
In  particular,  J.  G.  Fichte,  who  made  the  whole 
external  world  the  projection  of  a  universal  Ego 
(who  can  understand  this  ?)  proceeding  according 
to  the  self- evolving  laws  of  the  universal  mind, 
comes  to  the  conclusion  that,  though  God  could 
or  should  perform  a  miracle,  it  would  be  impos- 
sible for  man  to  come  to  the  knowledge  of  it,  so 
shut  up  is  he  in  the  forms  of  his  own  mind.*   Ever 

omnia,  quae  et  ab  ipso  di\-ino  intelloctu  concipiuntur,  se  extendant. — 
Spinoza,  Tract.  Theol.-Pol. :  vi.  11. 

*  Es  kaun  also  die  Frage  gar  nicht  davon  seyn,  wie  Gott  erne 
iiberaatiirliche  "Wirkung  in  der  Sinncnwelt  sich  also  moglich  dcnken, 
und  wie  er  sie  wirklich  machen  koune  ;  soudern  wie  wir  uns  eine 
Erscheinung  als  dutch  eine  iiberaaturliche  Causalitiit  Gottes  gewirkt 
denkcnkonnen?  Sec. — Fichte,  Versiich  Einer  Kritik  alter  Offenharung^  \  9. 


1^0  GENERAL  REMARKS 

since  the  days  of  Ficlite,  there  have  been  persons 
maintaining  that  a  miracle,  or  the  power  on  the 
part  of  man  to  discover  a  miracle,  is  an  impos- 
sibility. Those  holding  the  doctrine  in  this 
comitry,  have  seldom  announced  with  clearness 
the-  grounds  on  which  they  proceed,  and  we  com- 
monly find  them  flitting  from  one  defence  to 
another,  as  may  suit  their  purpose.  So  far  as 
their  arguments  proceed,  like  those  of  Spinoza 
and  Ficlite,  on  pantheistic  principles,  they  are 
to  be  met  by  those  facts  which  undermine  pan- 
theism, that  is — by  standing  up  for  the  trust- 
worthiness and  veracity  of  intuitive  convictions, 
v/hicli  Kant,  and  the  schools  which  ramified  from 
him,  have  entirely  overlooked,  particularly  the  in- 
tuition of  self- consciousness — the  consciousness 
of  self  as  a  person.  Only  admit  this  intuition, 
which  has,  to  say  the  least  of  it,  as  deep  a  place 
in  our  constitution  as  space  and  time,  or  any 
other  of  those  forms  or  categories  of  which  the 
disciples  of  Kant  make  so  much,  and  it  at  once 
saves  us  from  a  waste  of  energy  in  fighting  with 
the  spectres  which  the  transcendental  metaphysi- 
cians have  raised  up,  and  with  which  speculative 
youths  still  amuse  themselves,  though  I  rather 
think  that  no  one  now  believes  in  them.  Take 
this  deep  conviction  with  us,  and  it  at  once  shews 
us  tliat  "all"  is  not  "one,"  since  we,  ourselves, 
are  persons,  distinct  from  God  on  the  one  hand, 


ON  THE  SUPERNATURAL. 


121 


and  the  world  on  the  other,  and  enahles  us,  with 
the  aid  of  very  ohvious  ohservation,  to  reach  a 
personal  God  above  nature,  wdio,  indeed,  w^orks 
in  nature,  but  who  also  works  independent  of  it. 

In  our  own  country,  David  Hume,  the  sceptic, 
started  every  sort  of  objection  to  the  evidence 
adduced  on  behalf  of  miracles  ;  but  he  nowhere 
denies  the  possibility  of  a  miraculous  occurrence. 
Mr.  B.  Powell  everywhere  charges  alleged  mira- 
cles with  being  contrary  to  reason,  inconceivable 
by  reason,  and  set  aside  by  the  inductive  philo- 
sophy ;  but  he  never  attempts  to  shew  how  all 
this  must  be  so,  or  that  it  is  so,  and  instead  of 
proof,  he  gives  us  reiteration  after  reiteration 
in  very  much  the  same  phrases,  which  are 
nowhere  explained ;  and  he  does  all  this  with 
a  haughtiness  of  manner,  and  a  dogmatism  of 
tone,  which  may  impose  upon  weaker  minds 
which  would  save  thought  by  leaning  upon 
others,  but  which  rather  stirs  into  an  attitude 
of  opposition  those  who  would  part  with  any 
other  attribute  rather  than  their  independence 
of  thinking  and  judging.  We  are  entitled  to 
insist,  that  those  who  reject  miracles  specify 
the  precise  grounds  on  which  they  do  so. 

The  impossibility  of  a  miracle  can  be  main- 
tained, so  far  as  I  see,  on  two,  and  only  two 
grounds,  worthy  of  being  looked  at ;  one  is  the 
ground  of  intuition  or  intuitive  reason,  and  the 


122 


GENERAL  REBlAriKS 


other  the  ground  of  an  enlarged  experience 
gathered  to  a  point  hy  induction.  Let  us  ex- 
amine each  of  these  separately  : 

1.  It  is  conceivahle  that  a  miracle  may  he 
contrary  to  intuitive  reason.  I  freely  admit  that 
there  are  truths  ^yhich  the  mind  sees  at  once, 
and  hy  intuition.  If  a  miracle  were  contrary 
to  this  immediate  vision  of  the  soul,  or  the  prin- 
ciple on  which  it  proceeds,  it  would  certainly  he 
impossihle  to  establish  it  to  our  minds ;  for  the 
proof,  however  strong,  could  not  have  greater 
force  than  the  original  principle  which  it  would 
set  aside.  But  there  is  no  intuitive  perception, 
no  fundamental  law,  no  constitutional  principle 
of  the  mind  contradicted  hy  a  miracle. 

I  believe  that  there  is  a  principle  in  our  mind 
which  leads  us,  on  discovering  an  effect,  to  look 
for  a  cause.  If  a  miracle  were  contrary  to  this 
law,  it  would  be  impossible  to  establish  it.  But 
it  has  been  shewn,  again  and  again,  that  a  super- 
natural occurrence  is  not  inconsistent  with  the 
mental  law  of  causation.'''  Our  intuitive  convic- 
tion does  not  require  us  to  seek  for  a  material  ©5- 
ASft^fTtai-  cause  to  eveiy  effect,  it  is  equally  satis- 
fied when   it   meets  with  an  adequate  mental 

*  As  ty  Thomas  Brown— ("  On  Catm  and  Effect  " — Note  E.) — A 
miraclo  is  *'  an  effect  that  indicates  a  Power  of  a  higher  order  than  the 
powers  which  we  are  accustomed  directly  to  trace  in  phenomena  more 
familiar  to  us,  but  a  Power  whose  continued  and  ever  present  existence 
it  is  atheism  only  that  denies." 


Oy  THE  SUPErxNATUnAL. 


123 


cause.  I  seek  for  a  cause  of  the  movement  of 
my  arm,  which  a  moment  ago  was  still,  but  is 
now  lifted  up,  and  I  am  contented  when  I  can 
refer  it  to  my  volition  that  the  arm  should  he 
moved.  I  see  traces  of  design  m  the  construc- 
tion of  that  house  or  temple,  and  I  must  seek 
for  a  cause,  but  the  mind  feels  that  it  has 
enough  when  it  can  ascribe  it  to  the  intelligence 
and  taste  of  an  architect.  Nor  does  the  prin- 
ciple of  causation  insist  that  eveiy  effect  in 
nature  must  have  a  cause  in  nature ;  it  is  quite 
satisfied,  when  it  cannot  find  a  cause  in  nature, 
to  discover  it  in  an  agent  beyond  nature.  Thus 
it  is  that,  not  finding  in  nature  a  cause  of  the 
design  in  nature,  we  refer  it  to  a  supernatural 
intelligence.  A  supernatural  event  is  not  an 
effect  without  a  cause,  it  is  merely  an  effect 
without  a  cause  in  the  agencies  working  in  that 
system  which  we  call  nature.  The  intuitive 
principle  has  an  important  part  to  act  in  the 
process  of  reaching  the  supernatural  power  in 
the  miracle — a  part  very  much  the  same  as  that 
which  it  has  to  perform  in  rising  from  nature 
to  God,  as  the  author  of  nature.  Not  being  able 
to  discover  a  cause  among  natural  agencies,  the 
mental  principle  insists  on  a  supernatural  cause, 
and  rejoices  to  recognize  it  in  Him  to  whom  all 
inquiry  into  causes  ever  conducts  us,  and  in 
whom  all  power  resides. 


124  GENERAL  REMARKS 

But  here  it  will  be  necessary  to  distinguish 
between  two  things  which  have  often  been  con- 
founded : — between  the  principle  of  cause  and 
effect,  and  the  principle  of  the  uniformity  of 
nature.  The  principle  of  causation  insists,  that 
every  effect  has  a  cause.  I  look  upon  this  as  an 
intuitive  principle.  It  can  stand  the  tests  of  in- 
tuition. It  is  self-evident ;  the  mind,  on  the  bare 
contemplation  of  an  effect,  discovers  that  it  im- 
plies a  cause.  It  is  necessary ;  no  man  can  be 
made  to  believe  otherwise.  It  is  catholic  or  uni- 
versal ;  every  one  on  discovering  an  effect  looks 
for  a  cause.  It  is  an  internal  principle,  looking  to 
and  guaranteeing  a  corresponding  external  reality. 
To  this  law  there  are  no  exceptions  ;  to  this  law, 
I  believe,  there  can  be  no  exceptions.  It  holds 
good  in  nature ;  it  holds  good  beyond  nature. 
Every  thing  that  begins  to  be,  must  have  a  power 
producing  it.  It  is  thus  we  argue,  that  the  world, 
as  a  structure  produced  and  arranged,  must  have 
had  a  producing  and  arranging  cause. 

Of  quite  a  different  character  is  the  principle 
which  leads  us  to  believe  in  the  uniformity  of 
nature."     We  have  seen  (Bk.  I.,  chap,  iii.)  that 

*  It  is  one  of  the  gravest  defects  of  a  work  of  great  excellence,  but 
of  very  grave  defects — I  mean  the  "  Logic"  of  Mr.  J.  S.  IMill — that 
the  author  confounds,  all  throughout  his  Chapter  on  Induction,  our 
belief  in  Causation,  with  our  belief  in  the  Uniformity  of  Nature.  I 
have  commented  on  that  confusion  elsewhere. — Intuitions  of  the  Mind, 
pp.  275—278. 


ox  THE  SUPERNATURAL.  125 

it  cannot  stand  the  tests  of  intuition  : — it  is  not 
self-evident ;  it  is  not  necessary ;  it  is  not  uni- 
versal. It  is  discovered,  not  by  an  immediate 
perception  of  the  mind,  but  by  a  large  and  a  long 
experience ;  the  experience  of  ourselves  and 
others  over  an  extensive  range  of  facts.  It  de- 
clares, not  that  every  effect  has  a  cause,  but  that 
the  common  mundane  occurrences  have  a  cause 
in  the  agents  at  work  in  the  mundane  system. 
It  declares  that  fire  left  to  itself  will  burn,  but  it 
does  not  say  that  fire  may  not  be  counteracted  by 
a  higher  and  a  Divine  agency.  It  says  that,  con- 
signed to  the  processes  in  nature,  man's  body 
will  die,  but  it  is  not  entitled  to  affirm  that  man 
may  not  be  brought  to  life  again  by  supernatural 
potency.  For  scientific  purposes,  and  in  the  way 
of  widening  our  idea  of  the  order  of  the  universe, 
it  is  a  most  influential  law.  But  to  this  law,  it  is 
quite  conceivable,  there  may  be  exceptions, — to 
this  law  I  believe  there  are  exceptions.  It  is  by 
observation  and  induction  that  we  have  discovered 
the  law ;  it  is  by  them,  and  by  them  exclusively, 
that  we  discover  the  extent  and  the  limits  of  the 
law^  This  brings  us  to  consider  the  other 
ground  on  which  a  miracle  may  be  rejected. 

S.  It  is  conceivable  that  a  miracle  may  be 
contrary  to  experience.  The  first  objection  is 
commonly  urged  by  metaphysicians,  most  com- 
monly by  those  who  have  been  caught  in  the 


126  GENEHAL  REMAIIKS 

toils  of  pantheism.  This  second  is  more  hkely 
to  be  advanced  by  physicists,  who  have  fixed  their 
attention  so  exclusively  on  the  system  of  natural 
causes — mechanical,  chemical,  and  vital — that 
they  can  see  nothing  else. 

What  is  it  that  the  inductive  philosophy  has 
actually  established  ?  .  It  has  shewn  that  there 
is  a  set  of  agencies  working  in  nature,  and  that 
there  is  uniformity  in  their  operations.  All 
this  has  been  discovered  by  a  very  wide  induc- 
tion, wilder  than  we  have  in  favour  of  any  indivi- 
dual law  in  any  one  department  of  science ;  and  I 
rejoice  to  go  as  far  in  this  direction  as  the  most 
advanced  inductive  philosophers  possibly  can. 
But  wdien,  not  content  wdth  affirming,  they  make 
strong  denials,  I  draw  back,  and  I  put  myself 
on  the  defensive.  I  agree  with  them,  without 
reserve,  when  they  say  that  there  are  agencies 
working  in  a  system  ;  I  dispute  with  them  wdien 
they  declare  that  there  can  be  nothing  else,  and 
I  press  them  for  their  proof.  If  they  appeal  to 
reason  or  intuition,  I  meet  them  in  the  way  I 
have  done,  and  shew^  that,  while  every  occurrence 
has  a  cause,  this  does  not  require  that  it  must 
have  a  physical  or  mundane  cause.  If  they 
appeal  to  experience,  then  on  the  field  of  ex- 
perience I  meet  them. 

And  I  tell  them,  at  the  outset,  that  it  is  not 
possible,  in  the  nature  of  things,  that  they  should 


ON  THE  SUPERNATURAL.  127 

be  able  to  establish  the  doctrine  of  the  uni- 
formity of  nature  as  a  law  which  can  admit  of 
no  exceptions.  No  general  maxim  can  be  shewn 
to  be  necessary  by  experience  —  by  experience 
which  must  necessarily  be  limited.  In  ten 
thousand  million  of  occurrences  on  earth  we 
have  found  nothing  but  natural  agencies ; — this 
will  never  entitle  us,  by  any  logical  rule,  to  de- 
clare, dogmatically,  that  in  no  other  occurrence 
can  there  be  supernatural  agency.  In  a  court  of 
law,  the  testimony  of  a  thousand  witnesses,  that 
they  did  not  see  a  particular  individual  commit 
a  murder,  cannot  set  aside  the  testimony  of  two 
credible  witnesses,  that  they  saw  the  deed  done. 
On  a  like  principle,  the  fact,  that  in  common 
terrestrial  affairs  there  is  only  natural  agency,  can 
never  authorize  us  to  set  aside  at  once,  and  with- 
out examination,  every  case  of  alleged  superna- 
tural interference.  Our  appeal  being  to  experi- 
ence, we  must  be  prepared  to  abide  by  the  result 
of  experience.  If  there  be  a  prima  facie  case  of 
supernatural  action,  it  is,  at  least,  worthy  of  our 
examination,  and  if  it  relates  to  some  important 
matter  in  which  God  our  Maker  seems  to  be 
making  intimation  of  his  will,  it  demands  our 
careful  and  candid  attention.  If  the  evidence 
advanced  in  its  behalf  be  good,  standing  the 
usual  tests  of  testimony  and  historical  evidence, 
we  ought  to  yield  our  assent,  which  we  are  in  no 


128  GENERAL  nEMABKS 

way  entitled  to  withhold  on  the  ground  of  some 
general  principle  of  the  uniformity  of  nature, — 
a  principle  derived  solely  from  experience,  and 
which  we  must  submit  to  be  limited  by  ex- 
perience. 

And  here  it  will  be  needful  to  refer  to  the 
wretched  sophism  which  has  been  advanced, 
about  its  being  unreasonable  or  impossible  to 
suppose  that  God  should  work  miracles,  as  this 
would  be  inconsistent  with  his  unchanging  pur- 
poses. His  will,  they  say,  is  expressed  in  his 
works,  and  any  action  of  a  different  kind  would 
shew  that  God  is  changeable,  and  that  his  works 
in  nature  are  not  perfect,  and  not  worthy  of 
him.  It  requires  \eYj  little  penetration  to 
discover  the  quiet  assumptions  on  which  this 
reasoning  is  founded.  It  assumes,  that  because 
nature  is  an  expression  of  God's  will,  there  can 
be  no  other  expression.  It  assumes,  that  be- 
cause God  acts  after  a  particular  mode,  no 
doubt  for  wise  reasons  in  the  circumstances, 
he  can  never  have  reasons  for  acting  after  a 
different  manner  in  other  circumstances.  It 
assumes  that  an  addition  is  an  inconsistency ; 
that  to  superinduce  anything  farther  upon  some- 
thing previously  existing  is  to  declare  that  which 
thus  existed  to  have  been  wrong  or  bad.  It 
argues  no  inconsistency  in  the  Divine  plans, 
that  there  was  first  a  long  period  in  which  there 


ON  THE  SUPERNATURAL.  129 

were  only  plants  and  the  lower  animals  on  tlie 
earth's  surface,  and  that  afterwards  God  placed 
man  on  our  giohe ;  on  the  contrary,  distin- 
guished naturalists  have  argued,  from  the  very 
animal  forms  which  appeared  in  the  early  ages, 
that  it  must  have  heen  the  purpose  of  God  the 
Creator  from  the  beginning,  to  introduce  upon 
the  scene  a  being  bringing  out  more  fully  the 
capacities  of  the  type.  It  has  been  shewn,  in 
last  Book,  that  the  natural  seems  to  look  for  the 
supernatural.  It  will  be  shewn,  in  what  is  to 
follow  in  this  Book,  that  the  supernatural  fits  in 
most  admirably  into  the  natural  system,  and 
that  the  two  form  the  joined  and  adjusted  com- 
partments of  one  grand  'temple,  designed  from 
all  eternity  in  the  counsels  of  God,  and  now 
being  reared  in  time, — the  one  being  as  it  were 
the  outer,  and  the  other  the  inner  apartment. 
"  For  there  is  a  tabernacle  made ;  the  first, 
wherein "  are  natural  gifts  "  the  candlestick, 
the  table,  and  the  shewbread,  which  is  called 
the  sanctuary;  and  after  the  second  vail,  the 
tabernacle,  which  is  called  tlie  holiest  of  all," 
wherein  are  yet  higher  gifts,  and  an  immediate 
revelation  from  God,  "  which  had  the  golden 
censer,  and  the  ark  of  the  covenant  overlaid 
round  about  with  gold,  wherein  was  the  golden 
pot  that  had  manna,  and  Aaron's  rod  that 
budded,  and   the  tables   of  the  covenant,   and 


130 


GENERAL  REMAEK8 


over   it  the  clierubims  of  glory  shadowing  tlie 
mercy-seat." 

We  are  now  in  circumstances  to  examine  the 
statements  of  Mr.  Powell,  in  the  "  Essays  and 
Reviews."  He  is  everywhere  referring  to  the 
"  fixed  laws  of  belief,  and  our  convictions  of 
established  order  and  analogy  "  (p.  106)  ;  but  he 
gives  no  explanation  as  to  what  he  j)i'ecisely 
means.  The  following  is  the  most  specific 
language  wdiich  we  can  find  in  his  WTitings,  and 
it  is  sufficiently  vague  : — "  The  entire  range  of 
the  inductive  philosophy  is  at  once  based  upon, 
and  in  every  instance  tends  to  confirm,  by  an 
immense  accumulation  of  evidence,  the  grand 
truth  of  the  universal  order  and  constancy  of 
natural  laws,  as  a  primary  law  of  belief  so  strongly 
entertained  and  fixed  in  the  mind  of  every  truly 
inductive  inquirer  that  he  cannot  even  conceive 
the  possibility  of  its  failure"  (j)p.  108,  109). 
Again,  "  the  enlarged  critical  and  inductive 
study  of  the  natural  world  cannot  but  tend 
poW'Crfully  to  evince  the  inconceivableness  of 
imagined  interruptions  of  natural  order  or 
supposed  suspensions  of  the  laws  of  nature " 
(p.  110).  He  addsj.  miracles  are  "seen  to  be 
inconceivable  to  reason"  (p.  126).'''  I  have 
searched  through  all  his  voluminous  discussions 
as  to  the  order  of  nature,  without  finding  any- 

*  I  quote  from  the  Fifth  Edition  of  "Essays  and  Eeviews." 


ox  THE  SUPEUXATURAL. 


131 


thing  more  definite  than  the  above.  But,  from 
such  language,  we  cannot  find  on  what  grounds 
he  woukl  have  us  reject  miracles  thus  summarily, 
and  without  inquiry  into  the  evidence  by  which 
they  are  supported.  Some  of  his  expressions 
seem  to  mean  that  he  would  dismiss  them  at 
once,  on  the  ground  of  some  internal  principle 
called  "  reason,"  or  a  "  primary  law  of  belief." 
Other  expressions  would  rather  imply,  that  he 
would  have  us  set  them  aside  on  the  ground 
of  some  law  reached  by  observation  and  induc- 
tion— "  by  an  enlarged  critical  and  inductive 
study  of  the  natural  world."  The  impression 
left  is,  that  we  are  justified  in  discarding  the 
supernatural  on  both  grounds;  the  inductive 
philosophy  is  represented  as  "  based  upon " 
a  primary  law  of  belief,  and  it  "  confirms  it." 
But  we  cannot  submit  to  be  deceived  by  such  a 
thaumatrope  fallacy,  in  which  the  author  appeals 
to  fact  when  driven  from  reason,  and  goes  back 
to  intuition,  or  reason,  when  it  is  shewn  that  ex- 
perience cannot  cover  his  position.  Nor  can  we 
allow  him  to  take  advantage,  as  he  seems  in- 
clined, of  both  collectively,  till  he  has  explained 
and  vindicated  each  separately.  If  his  appeal 
be  to  reason  —  meaning  intuitive  reason,  or 
fundamental  laws  of  belief — then  I  meet  his 
dogmatic  assertion  by  a  dogmatic  denial.  There 
is  no  primary  law  of  the  human  mind  which  au- 


132  GENERAL  REMARKS 

tliorises  us  to  reject  a  miracle  without  looking  at 
its  evidence.  He  tells  us  that  miracles  are  "  seen 
to  be  inconceivable  by  reason."  If  he  means 
that  we  cannot  have  an  idea  of  a  miracle,  that 
we  cannot  conceive  it,  in  the  sense  of  picturing 
or  representing  it  to  the  mind,  the  statement  is 
simply  false,  for  we  can  easily  form  the  idea  or 
notion  of  an  event  in  nature — say  a  person 
rising  from  tlie  dead — with  a  cause  beyond 
nature.  If  he  means,  by  a  miracle  being  incon- 
ceivable by  the  reason,  that  we  cannot  judge  it  or 
believe  it  to  be  true,  I  maintain,  in  opposition, 
that  there  is  no  intuitive  law  of  belief  which  is 
inconsistent  with  a  miracle ;  and  reason  com^ 
mands  us,  in  matters  of  experience,  to  be  guided 
by  observational  evidence,  and  not  by  a  'priori 
principles.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  the  principle 
to  which  he  appeals  is  supposed  to  be  the  result 
of  experience,  then  I  maintain  that  experience 
can  sanction  no  such  wide  negative  law,  and 
that  the  evidence  of  experience  is  in  favour  of 
the  occurrence  of  certain  miraculous  events 
bearing  testimony  to  a  most  momentous  revela- 
tion from  heaven. 


ON  TEH  SUPEHKATURAL.  1 


oo 


SECT.  III.— PURPOSES  SERVED  BY  THE  SUPERNATURAL. 

We  advance  a  step  farther  in  our  discussions 
in  this  section,  but  it  is  only  a  single  step.  We 
are  to  inquire  what  purposes  may  be  conceivably 
served  by  the  supernatural ;  but  we  are  not,  at 
this  place,  to  endeavour  to  prove  systematically 
that  these  ends  are  actually  accomplished.  This 
may  be  done  more  effectively,  after  we  have 
looked  in  a  more  particular  manner  at  the  cha- 
racter of  the  supernatural  revelation.  But,  first, 
it  will  he  proper  to  shew  that  there  are  certain 
-ends  which  do  not  require  supernatural  agency 
to  produce  them,  inasmuch  as  they  may  be  se- 
cured by  the  natural. 

1 .  It  is  not  needful  that  a  miracle  be  wrought 
— say  that  one  should  rise  from  the  dead — to 
convince  us  that  there  is  a  God.  For  all  this  is 
very  evident  from  the  frame  of  the  world,  and 
is  pressed  upon  us  by  deep  internal  convictions. 
Some  have  maintained  that  the  existence  of  God 
might  be  proven  by  the  miracles  recorded  in  the 
Scriptures.  These,  it  is  said,  have  come  down  to 
us  as  well-attested  facts,  which,  in  their  character 
and  mode  of  operation,  argue  a  power  above  the 
mechanism  of  nature.  I  am  not  inclined  to  go  so 
far  as  to  affirm  that  there  is  no  force  whatever  in 
this  line  of  argument.     I  believe  that  the  truths 


134  GENERAL  REM  ABES 

revealed  in  Scrq)ture  are  so  self- evidencing, 
and  that  the  great  facts  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment are  so  well  attested,  that  they  are  fitted 
to  impress  us  with  the  conviction  that  there  is 
a  living  power  ahove  the  dead  universe.  It  is  a 
matter  of  fact,  that  it  is  mainly  by  means  of  the 
Bible  and  its  supernatural  truths,  that  the  idea 
of  God  is  first  suggested  to  those  who  have  been 
brought  up  in  a  Christian  land.  I  am  also  fully 
persuaded  that  to  most  minds  the  revelation  of 
God  in  his  Word  is  a  means  of  strengthening 
and  rendering  more  real  the  conviction  which 
may  be  gathered  from  his  works.  Still,  it  is 
ever  to  be  resolutely  maintained,  that  "  the  in- 
visible things  of  God,  from  the  creation  of  the 
world,  are  clearly  seen,  being  understood  from 
the  things  that  are  made — even  his  eternal  power 
and  Godhead."  The  Bible  everywhere  assumes 
that  there  is  a  God ;  it  presupposes  that  men 
believe  in  God,  and  it  comes  as  the  Word  of 
that  God.  The  Christian  apologist  who  acts 
wisely  should  proceed  on  a  previous  demonstra- 
tion of  the  Divine  existence,  or  rather  upon 
man's  conviction  that  there  is  a  supernatural 
Being,  and  bring  in  that  Being  as  the  cause  of 
the  miracles  which  are  recorded  in  the  volume 
of  inspiration. 

2.  AVe  do  not  require  miraculous  operations 
to  bring  about  the  ordinary  events  of  God's  pro- 


OiY  TEE  SUTERXATURAL. 


135 


vidence ;  to  procure  a  supply  to  our  bodily  wants  ; 
to  secure  us  from  danger,  when  God  so  means 
it ;  to  visit  us  with  affliction,  when  the  Divine 
faithfulness  knows  that  we  require  it ;  and  to 
help  on  individuals  and  the  race  in  the  onward 
march  of  intelhgence  and  civilization.  A  pro- 
vision has  been  made  for  all  these  in  the  plan 
of  nature,  in  which  God  has  general  laws,  to 
which  mankind  can  accommodate  themselves, 
and  fittings  of  one  agent  and  law  to  another, 
whereby  he  accomplishes  each  of  his  special 
ends.  In  this  economy,  everything  has  been 
arranged  from  the  beginning,  with  such  wis- 
dom and  foresight,  that  it  does  not  need  to  be 
amended.  God  gives  no  encouragement,  either 
in  his  Word  or  in  his  Works,  to  those  who  ex- 
pect him  to  work  miracles  to  save  them  from  the 
consequences  of  their  own  folly,  or  to  help  a 
cause  which  may  be  carried  by  human  zeal  and 
energy,  aided  by  such  predispositions  as  God 
may  have  made  in  his  natural  providence. 

But  when  all  this  is  allowed,  it  does  not  go 
to  prove  that  the  supernatural  is  unnecessary. 
Man,  indeed,  must  ever  be  careful  not  to  go 
beyond  his  proper  province,  in  making  affirma- 
tions regarding  what  God  may  do  or  must  do. 
Some  defenders  of  Christianity  speak  of  the  "  ne- 
cessity of  a  Divine  Eevelation.  The  language 
is  strong,  as  coming  from  a  creature  like  man, 


136 


GENERAL  REMARKS 


whose  capacities  are  so  restricted  and  oppor- 
tunities of  knowing  the  possible  ways  of  God  are 
so  confined.  But  while  it  should  ever  be  far 
from  us  to  dictate  to  Deity,  we  may  carefully 
look  at  the  state  of  things  in  which  we  find 
ourselves  placed,  and  at  the  relation  in  which 
we  stand  towards  God,  and  reverently  observe 
how  certain  great  purposes  worthy  of  God,  suited 
to  our  world,  and  bearing  upon  the  crying  wants, 
of  man,  might  be  served  by  a  supernatural  ac- 
tion or  revelation,  should  God  be  pleased  to 
grant  it.  Enough,  at  least,  may  be  discovered 
to  obviate  those  objections  which  proceed  on 
the  allegation  that  the  added  supernatural  must 
be  incongruous  with  the  previous  natural,  and 
be  a  reflection  on  the  consistency  of  God.  It 
will  appear  that  the  supernatural  fits  into  the 
natural,  and  carries  out  fully  the  Divine  purpose, 
as  manifested  in  the  world. 

I.  The  principal  ground  on  which  we  antici- 
pate a  supernatural  interposition  of  God  is,  un- 
doubtedly, the  existence  and  universality  of  sin. 
"We  have  here  a  fact  in  nature  to  proceed  upon, 
and  we  feel  constrained  to  trace  its  relation  to 
God  and  to  his  character,  as  revealed  by  nature 
without  and  nature  within  us.  It  is  quite  cer- 
tain, on  the  one  hand,  that  sin  exists;  equally 
certain,  on  the  other  hand,  that  it  is  a  violation  of 
the  law  of  God,  and  oflfensive  to  Him  who  hath 


ON  THE  S UPERNA TUBAL.  137 

instituted  it.  We  are  sure  that  God  condemns 
sin,  and  yet  we  have  strong  hopes  that,  somehow 
or  other,  he  may  provide  forgiveness  for  the 
guilty.  Nature  shews  that  God  is  good,  but 
^lils  to  point  out  a  way  by  which  the  sinner  may 
be  reconciled  to  that  good  God.  It  is  at  this 
point  that  the  revealed  fact  of  the  Word  comes 
in  to  meet  the  mysterious  fact  of  nature.  The 
incarnation  of  the  Eternal  Word,  followed  by  the 
setting  of  a  perfect  example,  by  the  working  of  a 
perfect  righteousness,  and  by  piacular  suffering 
and  death,  is  the  great  supernatural  event,  carry- 
ing all  the  others  along  with  it,  as  the  streams 
which  feed  it,  or  the  rivers  which  flow  from  it ; 
as  its  antecedents,  or  its  consequents ;  as  means 
towards  it,  or  issues  from  it.  Admit  this  grand 
occurrence,  and  we  feel  that  we  may  admit  a 
thousand  more,  provided  they  stand  in  a  relation 
to  it.  We  have  now  a  new  and  a  grander  central 
sun  than  that  of  our  natural  mundane  system, 
and  we  have  no  difficulty  in  conceiving  that 
there  may  be  many  bodies  rolling  round  it,  as 
secondaries  or  dependencies. 

II.  Another  ground  on  which  we  may  be  led 
to  anticipate  the  Divine  interposition  is  to  be 
found  in  man's  distance  from  God,  and  igno- 
rance of  him,  coupled  always  with  the  desirable- 
ness of  knowing  God,  and  his  willingness  to  be 
known.     The  circumstance  now  referred  to  pro- 


138 


GENERAL  PiEMAIlKS 


ceeds  from  the  other,  but  it  comes  to  us  with  a 
pecuhar  aspect.  AVe  discover  two  classes  of 
facts  in  nature,  which  seem  to  imply  a  third  class 
above  nature,  in  order  to  reconcile  them.  Tbese 
natural  facts  meet  us,  whether  we  look  to  tbe 
world  at  hxrge  or  to  our  own  individual  re- 
Hgious  experience.  • 

Looking  to  m^ankind  at  large,  w^e  find,  on  the 
one  hand,  as  Paul  told  the  men  at  Lystra,  that 
God  "  has  not  left  himself  without  a  witness  in 
that  he  did  good,  and  gave  us  rain  from  heaven 
and  fruitful  seasons,  filling  our  hearts  with  food 
and  gladness"  (Acts  xiv.  17),  and  on  the  other 
hand,  that  men  have  not  attended  to  that  wit- 
ness, or  have  not  understood  it  aright.  The 
heavens  declare  the  glory  of  God  ;  but  how  few 
of  those  who  have  dwelt  or  do  dwell  on  the  earth 
have  looked  up  to  the  heavens,  and  risen  thereby 
to  clear  apprehensions  of  his  nature  and  perfec- 
tions. God  does  reveal  himself  in  these  his 
works,  and  yet  does  it  not  look  as  if  he  were 
concealing  himself  behind  them  ?  How  few  of 
his  intelligent  creatures  have  recognized  him,  or 
have  worshipped  him,  except  in  the  most  horrid 
and  tortured  shapes,  which  are  a  caricature  of 
his  excellencies  and  a  mockeiy  of  his  greatness, 
in  which  his  purity  is  omitted,  and  his  good- 
ness turned  into  favoritism  and  caprice,  and  his 
spiritual  nature  reduced  to  sensuous  forms  !     It 


ox  THE  SUPEEXATURAL. 


139 


lias  again  and  again  been  shewn,  till  it  Las  be- 
come commonplace — and  men  ^Yho  bate  com- 
monplace turn  from  it — but  it  is  an  established 
truth  which  no  one  can  deny,  and  the  impor- 
tance of  which  cannot  be  over-estimated,  that 
no  nation  of  itself  has  (and  very  few  individuals 
have)  risen  to  the  knowledge  of  one  God  apart 
from  a  w^ritten  revelation.  This  induction  is  as 
w^ide  as  any  in  physical  science,  embracing  not 
only  ancient  but  modern  times,  not  only  bar- 
barous and  degraded  countries,  but  semi-civilized 
countries  of  vast  magnitude,  such  as  India  and 
China,  and  highly  civilized  countries,  such  as 
ancient  Greece,  and  countries  capable  of  the  high- 
est political  organization,  such  as  ancient  Eome. 
All  history,  too,  testifies,  from  Greece  downwards 
to  modern  Japan,  that  the  picture  drawn  in  the 
close  of  the  first  chapter  of  the  Epistle  to  the 
Eomans  is  a  true  one ;  that  when  men  "  knew 
not  God,  and  glorified  him  not  as  God,  neither 
w^ere  thankful,"  they  have  everywhere  been  given 
up  to  uncleanness  and  other  sins,  such  as  murder, 
deceit,  malignity,  practised  without  public  repro- 
bation, or  an  eflbrt  being  made  to  stay  the  evil — 
inasmuch  as  men  not  only  "  do  the  same,  but 
have  pleasure  in  them  that  do  them."  On  the 
other  hand,  it  is  clear  that  God  washes  that  he 
should  be  know^n ;  and,  as  Paul  taught  the 
Athenians,  that  men  "  should  seek  the  Lord,  if 


140 


GENERAL  REMARKS 


liaply  they  might  feel  after  him,  and  find  him, 
though  he  he  not  far  from  every  one  of  us" 
(Acts  xvii.  27) :  and  it  is  certain  that  the  know- 
ledge of  God  is  a  higher  knowledge  in  itself  than 
the  knowledge  of  his  works,  or  than  any  other 
knowledge  can  he  ;  and  that  it  has  an  elevating 
tendency  upon  the  thoughts,  and  a  purifying 
influence  upon  the  morals  of  a  people  ;  Avhile  it 
brings  to  all,  hut  especially  those  in  affliction,  a 
thousand  comfortable  assurances.  Is  any  man 
justified  in  dogmatically  affirming  that  this  God 
never  has  made,  and  that  he  never  can  make,  a 
fuller  and  a  comforting  revelation  of  himself  to  his 
intelligent  and  anxious  creatures  every wdi ere  seek- 
ing him — as  they  sliew  by  their  very  errors,  and 
yet  ever  feeling  that  they  have  not  found  him — 
as  they  shew  by  their  dissatisfaction  and  restless- 
ness? The  human  spirit  seems  to  anticipate 
that,  though  God  has  "  winked  "  at  "  this  time 
of  ignorance,"  yet  he  will,  at  the  set  time,  break 
the  silence,  and  "  command  all  men  everywhere 
to  repeni"  (Acts  xvii.  27,  30)  in  order  to  a 
restoration  to  himself.  I  believe  that  he  who 
has  reflected  deeply  upon  nature  and  all  its 
mysteries,  and  upon  the  actual  state  of  mankind 
and  their  relation  to  God,  will  be  the  most  dis- 
posed to  consider  and  to  weigh  the  facts  and 
arguments  which  might  be  advanced  to  shew 
that  God  has  been  pleased  to  make  known  a 


ON  THE  SUPERNATURAL. 


141 


way  of  access  to  him.     He  who  perceives  that  it 
has  heen  by  the  Bible  that  God's  unity  and  his 
higher  perfections  have  in  fact  been  made  known 
to  that  portion  of  the  human  fjxmily  which  know 
and  recognise   these   truths,  will   surely  not  be 
disposed  a  priori  and  peremptorily  to  decide  that 
the  book  cannot  possibly  have  come   from  God. 
Nor  let  any  one  urge  that  the  light  at  present  dif- 
fused over  the  professedly  Christian  world  would 
remain   on   our   earth    even   though   the  Bible 
were  withdrawn  as  a  heavenly  luminary.     From 
all  that  history  teaches  regarding  mankind  we 
may  be  sure  that  in  such  a  case  the  light  at  pre- 
sent diffused,  like  the  sun's  beams  through  our 
atmosphere,  so  that  many  fail  to  recognise   the 
luminous  centre  from  which  it  proceeds,  would 
soon  lessen,  and  would  finally  disappear,  among 
the  great  body  of  the  people,  were  the  Bible,  as 
the  source,  withdrawn, — ^just  as  the  day,  after  a 
brief  splendour,  sinks  into  twilight  and  darkness 
when  the  sun  ceases  to  shine.    Yes ;  let  us  realize 
— it  may  be  profitable  for  us — the  position  of  our 
world  were  the  Bible  found  by  German  critics  or 
Oxford  essayists  to  be  so  full  of  errors  that  no 
one  could  discover  from  it  what  was  truth  and 
what  was  error.     What  would  the  great  body  of 
the  people  in  these  lands  now  have  to  fall  back 
upon?      What   would   we    now   have   to    carry 
with  us  when  we  addressed  the  heathen  or  the 


142 


GENERAL  EE3IARKS 


outcast?  .Would  not  the  great  mass  of  man- 
kind feel  licensed  to  abandon  themselves  to 
shameless  ungodliness  and  sensuality,  from 
which  they  would  he  roused  only,  by  occasional 
religious  awakenings,  to  feel  that  they  were 
groping  in  darkness,  in  which  they  would  find 
gods  or  demons,  suited  to  their  tastes  or  created 
by  their  fears,  among  imperfectly  discerned 
natural  objects?  I  believe  that  the  very  edu- 
cated, when  the  darkness  had  settled  down, 
would  feel  God  disappearing  more  and  more 
from  the  view,  and  becoming,  in  fact,  an  un- 
known God — at  best  a  mere  point  of  light — 
"  a  postulate  of  reason,"  as  some  one  admits  him 
— seen  in  the  incalculable  distance,  not  as  a  sun 
shining  all  around,  but  as  a  star  exercising  no 
appreciable  influence  on  our  earth. 

The  very  same  impression  is  left  when,  in- 
stead of  looking  at  the  world  without,  we  listen 
to  the  breathings  of  our  own  spirits.  In  our 
deeper  moods  we  feel  as  if  these  souls  of  ours 
had  some  affinity  with  God,  and  yet  it  is  in  our 
moments  of  deepest  thought  and  emotion  that  we 
are  made  to  feel  most  impressively  that  he  is  at 
an  infinite  distance  from  us.  Many  a  profound 
thinker  has  felt,  as  Heraclitus  of  Ephesus  did, 
when  he  describes  the  name  of  Zeus  as  "  the  one 
object  of  wisdom,"  which  "wills  not  and  yet 
wills  to  be  spoken"  (y.iysff&ui  oh-/.  ItJsXsi  zai  IdsXsi).     He 


ON  THE  SUPERNATURAL. 


143 


seems  as  if  He  were  offering  us  cominunion 
with  himself,  and  yet  we  are  ever  baffled  and 
beat  back  in  our  efforts  to  enjoy  the  privilege. 
We  are  ever  induced  to  mount,  but  as  we  do  so 
by  natural  means,  we  hnd  that,  after  all,  there  is 
no  atmosphere  to  float  us  beyond  a  very  short 
height,  and  that  we  never  get  beyond  the  gravity 
of  earth,  which,  in  the  end,  draws  us  back  to  its 
hard  and  cold  surface.  There  are  times  when 
our  spirits,  as  if  at  the  invitation  of  God,  would 
boldly  go  up  to  heaven's  gates  only  to  find  them 
shut  and  silent,  and  we  come  back  sulky  and 
disappointed.  How  often  have  we  felt  our 
prayers  ascending  as  vapours,  drawn  up  by  a 
genial  heat  as  we  think  in  the  heavens,  only 
to  return  as  snow  to  damp  and  cool,  or  as  hail 
to  smite  us.  All  these  natural  facts  and  intima- 
tions combined  seem  to  shew  that  God  is  dis- 
pleased with  us,  while  yet  he  loves  us;  not 
countenancing  us  in  our  sins,  and  yet  sparing 
us  in  the  midst  of  them  ;  shewing  his  disapproval 
of  our  conduct,  but  yet  waiting  to  be  gracious 
and  showering  favours  upon  us  in  order  to  melt 
us  into  gratitude.  Could  any  man,  living  in  a 
heathen  land,  be  giving  offence  to  that  God, 
were  he  to  pray  that  He  would  reveal  Himself 
more  fully,  and  shew  the  way  by  which  the  sin- 
ner may  approach  him  ? 

But  if  God  is  to  provide  a  reconcilement  of 


144 


GENERAL  RE3IAEKS 


these  chasms,  that  reconcilement  must  be  pre- 
ternatural, and  if  he  is  to  reveal  this  method 
of  reconciliation,  it  must  be  in  a  supernatural 
way, — the  revelation  itself  is  supernatural,  it  is 
a  voice  out  of  and  beyond  the  natural  sphere. 
To  preclude  God  from  suj^ernatural  action,  is  to 
shut  him  out  from  providing  a  remedy  for  the 
evils  which  sin  has  entailed.  To  make  it  im- 
possible to  prove  the  supernatural,  is  to  shut  out 
man  from  ever  knowing  that  there  is  forgiveness 
and  peace.  But  if  God  is  to  reveal  his  will  it 
must  be  in  a  way  intelligible  to  man,  and  the 
intelligent  nature  of  man  requires  that  there  be 
evidence  that  it  is  God  that  speaks. 

III.  God  may  prove  to  us  a  supernatural 
revelation  by  miracles  of  evidence  wrought  on 
natural  agents,  but  by  an  action  beyond  the 
sphere  of  nature.  For  if  God  is  to  reveal  the 
supernatural  to  us,  say  that  his  Eternal  Son 
became  flesh  and  made  reconciliation,  it  must 
be  through  the  natural.  In  saying  so,  I  do  not 
speak  of  any  absolute  necessity  in  the  nature  of 
things,  but  of  a  necessity  arising  from  the  nature 
of  man,  and  of  the  mundane  system  in  which  he 
is  placed.  A  revelation  to  man  is  a  revelation 
to  a  being  within  the  sphere  of  nature.  Not 
only  so,  but  that  revelation  must  be  made  by 
means  which  can  reach  him.  It  must  be  made 
immediately  to  his  soul  by  intimations  to  it,  or 


ON  THE  SUPERNATUPxAL.  145 

it  must  be  made  externally  throiigii  liis  bodily 
senses.     I  suppose  that  to  the  inspired  prophets  v  f' 
the  revelation  was  made  by  a  mental  represen-«.|>i 
tation,  accompanied  by  a  conviction  very  analo-  '^<T:' 
gous  to  the  intuitive  conviction  which  makes  us^J'  ^ 
trust  our  senses  or  our  memory,  that  is,  a  con-  - 
viction  carrying  in  itself  its  own  evidence  and..^'  J, 
validity.     Such  a  persuasion  must  come  to  every  ^J^ 
individual  expected  to  be  swayed  by  it.     It  is 
quite  conceivable  that   God  might  thus   super- 
naturally    work    a   conviction    in    the    breast   of 
every  man.     He  has,  I  believe,  imprinted  cer- 
tain  natural  beliefs  on   the  souls  of   all  men, 
such  as  that  every  change  implies  a  cause,  and 
that  sin  deserves  punishment.     It  is  quite  con- 
ceivable that  God   might   add  to  these   native 
ones  another,  whereby  w^e  should  be  led  to  be- 
lieve  at   once  in  the   doctrine  of  the    Trinity. 
Such  a  conviction  w^ould,  in  its  very  nature,  be       f 
necessary  and  irresistible,  it  would  leave  no  room       : 
for  free  will  either  in  a  good  or  bad  exercise,        : 
no  room   either   for   choice  or   rejection.     But 
it  is  not  thus  that  God  reveals  to  us  the  great 
practical  doctrines  and   duties  of  religion  and 
morality.     Instead   of  driving  us  irresistibly  by 
instinct,  he  leads  us  by  mediate  evidence,  which 
we  are  expected  to  receive,  buf  which  we  may 
also   reject.      But   it  is  no   evidence  to  me  of 
Jesus  being  a  Divine  teacher,  that  he  was  so 


146 


GENERAL  REMARKS 


esteemed  by  a  person  named  Paul  or  John,  who 
hved  eighteen  centuries  ago.  If  evidence  is  to 
be  furnished  to  mankind  generally,  it  may  be 
best  addressed  to  the  senses.  And  how  can 
man  be  so  effectually  convinced  that  God  is 
acting  or  that  God  is  speaking,  as  by  witness- 
ing acts  wrought  in  nature  above  all  natural 
power,  wrought  by  the  Being  who  at  first  pro- 
duced nature,  and  wdio  can  change  it  as  it 
pleases  him.  The  miracles  of  Scripture  are  all 
wrought  in  nature, — the  effects  are  in  natural 
agents,  and  become  thus  cognizable  by  man ; 
but  the  cause  must  be  in  a  power  beyond  any 
natural  cause. 

This  is  the  proper  place  for  a  statement  as  to 
the  phrases  employed  in  such  discussions.  As  a 
matter  of  propriety  and  convenience,  we  may 
speak  of  whatever  is  supposed  to  be  beyond  the 
natural,  as  "  preternatural."  The  phrase  will 
apply  not  only  to  the  Divine  action,  but  to  the 
agency  of  such  beings  as  ghosts  and  demons, — 
to  all  such  operations  as  witchcraft  and  necro- 
mancy. We  may  reserve  the  phrase  "  super- 
natural" to  the  Supreme  Being,  and  to  the  works 
performed  by  him,  and  to  the  objects  created  by 
hira  beyond  the  natural  sphere,  such  as  angels 
and  the  world  to  come.  We  would  confine  the 
word  "  miracle "  to  those  events  which  were 
wrought  in  our  w^oiid  as  a  sign  or  proof  of  God 


ox  TUE  SUrEUXATURAL.  147 

making  a  supernatural  interposition  or  a  revela- 
tion to  man.  We  must  ever  view  creation  as 
supernatural,  but  we  do  not  speak  of  it  as 
miraculous.  We  look  upon  the  incarnation  of 
the  Son  -of  God'  as  supernatural,  we  do  not 
employ  it  as  a  sign  or  wonder  for  evidence. 
We  believe  the  conversion  of  the  sinner  to  tran- 
scend all  the  natural  eflbrts  of  the  corrupt  heart 
of  man,  but  we  do  not  advance  it  as  a  miracle 
for  proof,  though  it  may  carry  strong  conviction 
to  the  man  himself,  and  produce  an  impression 
and  a  prepossession  on  those  who  were  cognizant' 
of  the  former  man,  and  now  mark  the  change 
wrought  upon  him.  We  would  confine  the 
phrase  miraculous  to  those  signs,  wonders,  and 
miracles  which  were  wrought  by  Moses  and  the 
prophets,  by  Jesus  and  the  Apostles,  to  summon 
the  attention  of  spectators,  and  to  gain  their 
reasonable  conviction  as  to  the  Divine  origin 
of  the  message  proclaimed,  and  the  system  of 
religious  doctrine  set  forth. 

IV.  It  is  conceivable  that  the  supernatural 
in  our  world  may  be  the  means  of  bringing  it 
into  harmonious  connexion  with  other  portions 
of  the  universe.  Though  no  wise  man  will  ever 
attempt  a  scientific  demonstration  of  it  by  the 
light  of  nature,  yet  the  deepest  thinkers,  looking 
to  the  infinitude  of  space  and  the  greatness  of 
God,  have  been  prone  to  believe  that  God  has 


148  GENERAL  REMARKS 

other  systems  beyond  ours,  created  in  tlie  ful- 
ness of  bis  wisdom  and  bis  love.     We  can  never, 
indeed,  know  anything  positive  of  these  other 
workls ;  they  he  in  the  dhn  and  distant  horizon 
of  our  vision,  and  we  cannot  say  whether  it  is 
Heating  vapour  or  sohd  hind  that  w^e  see.     When 
we  are  in  this  state  of  perplexity  the  Scriptures 
of  the    Old   and   New    Testament   come  to  us 
as  the  Word  of  God,  and  proclaim  that  beyond 
the  region  visible  by  man,  there  are  "thrones, 
and  dominions,  and  principalities,  and  powers." 
They  also  mform  us  that  beings  in  these  other 
worlds  take  an  interest  in  the  supernatural  events 
which   have    been    transacted    on    our  earth, — 
"  which  things  the  angels  desire  to  look  into " 
(1  Pet.  i.  12);  and  that  the  work  of  the  Mediator, 
in  bringing  God  and  man  into  reconcilement, 
also  brings  our  world,  and  the  sinful  inhabitants 
of  it,  into   unison   with   other   worlds   and  the 
beings  who  people  them  :    "  For  it  pleased  the 
Father  that  in  him  should  all  fulness  dwell,  and 
having  made  peace  by  the  blood  of  his  cross,  by 
him   to  reconcile   all   things  unto  himself;    by 
him,  I  say,  whether  they  be  things  in  earth  or 
things  in  heaven"  (Col.  i.  19,  20).     These  are 
pleasant   glimpses,  opened   to   us   through   the 
loopholes  of  our  present  place  of  confinement, 
of  scenes  in. wdiich  we  may  expatiate  when  the 
earthly  house  of  our  tabernacle  is  dissolved. 


ox  THE  SUFERXATURAL. 


149 


Y.  x\ltogetlier,  the  supernatural  may  Le  con- 
sidered as  the  complement  of  the  natural,  or  the 
carrying  out  to  its  proper  conchision  of  what  is 
invoh^ed  in  the  present  system  of  things.  It  is 
certain  that  the  natural  system  is  the  eliect  of  a 
prior  supernatural  action ;  and  it  seems  to  point 
on  to  some  supernatural  consummation.  I  sup- 
pose we  could  not  appropriately  lepresent  the 
existence  of  the  soul  in  the  world  to  come  as 
natural;  hut  the  everlasting  life  is  implied  in 
the  temporal  life,  as  the  flower  is  in  the  hud.  It 
would  he  an  inaccurate  use  of  language  to  speak 
of  the  resurrection  of  the  hody  as  natural,  but 
the  resurrection  is  certainly  quite  in  conso- 
nance with  the  high  natural  endo\Yments  of 
man.  That  reproaches  of  conscience  should 
pursue  the  commission  of  sin  on  earth,  is  an 
arrangement  of  God's  natural  providence  which 
points  to  a  more  fearful  retribution  in  a  future 
life.  It  is  the  same  with  most  of  the  super- 
natural manifestations  of  God  brought  under 
our  view  in  the  Word;  they  are  the  realiza- 
tion of  what  is  implied  in  the  system  of  nature^ 
being  the  fulfilment  of  a  plan,  or  the-  supply 
for  an  obvious  w^ant,  or  the  completion  of  what 
had  been  commenced." 

*  This  may  bo  the  proper  place  for  referring  to  the  discussions 
which  have  taken  place,  as  to  whether  miracles  are  against  nature,  or 
vdolations  of  the  laws  of  nature,  and  as  to  whether  they  may  not  bo 


150 


GENEEAL  BEMAEKS 


SECT.  IV.— RELATION  OF   THE    SUPERNATURAL   TO   THE 
NATURAL. 

In  the  Scriptures  the  distinction  between 
the  natural  and  supernatural  is  implied  and 
proceeded  on,  but  is  not  drawn  abstractly  or 
theoretically.  The  precise  scientihc  difference 
between  the  two  cannot  be  discerned  till  research 

conformed  to  a  higher  nature.  The  controversies  on  these  topics  have 
generally  been  distinguished  by  much  confusion.  A  miracle  may  be 
said  to  be  against  or  not  against  nature,  according  as  we  understand 
*'  against'^  They  are  against  nature  as  they  counteract  natural  action, 
— -just  as  one  natural  agent  may  be  against  another — as  water  may 
counteract  fire ;  but  they  are  not  against  nature  in  the  sense  of  being 
in  opposition  to  the  design  of  nature  as  a  work  of  God.  They  are 
violations  of  the  laws  of  nature,  inasmuch  as  they  arrest  what  would 
take  place  according  to  natural  agencies  ;  but,  after  all,  they  only  enable 
nature,  as  a  work  of  God,  to  carry  out  its  full  design.  "  The  miracle  is 
not  tm7iatural"  says  Dr.  Trench,  "  nor  can  it  be ;  since  the  unnatural,  the 
contrary  to  order,  is  of  itself  the  ungodly,  and  can  in  no  way,  therefore, 
be  afiirmed  of  a  Divine  work." — [Notes  on  the  Miracles  of  our  Lord, 
chap,  ii.)  The  statement  is  prettily  worded,  and  has  a  truth  in  it. 
But  it  contains  an  amphiboly  in  regard  to  the  meaning  of  the  word 
*'  natural."  By  nature,  in  the  proper  use  of  the  term,  we  mean  the 
system  of  things  in  the  Cosmos  ;  and  certainly  a  miracle  is  non-natural, 
that  is,  not  from  the  natural,  though  it  is  not  therefore  "  unholy,"  as  it 
proceeds  from  a  holy  sphere  beyond.  The  tmnatural  is  "unholy"  in  a 
different  sense,  as  meaning  something  inconsistent  with  the  plan  of  God 
in  nature.  The  truth  of  the  statement  lies  in  this,  that  miracles  are  in 
complete  harmony  with  the  design  of  God  in  the  works  of  creation. 
But  a  statement  to  the  effect  that  they  are  natural  would  be  altogether 
wrong;  as  the  "natural"  properly  means  that  which  is  produced  by 
cosmical  agencies ;  and  such  language  is  apt  to  leave  the  impression 
that  miracles  might  be  explained  by  some  higher  material  or  mental 
causes. 


Oy  THE  SUPERNA TURAL.  151 

has  made  such  progress  as  to  convince  men  that 
nature  is  a  self-contained  system.  If  the  in- 
spired writers  had  heen  taught  constantly  to 
keep  up  the  line  of  demarcation,  their  statements 
would  have  heen  unintelligible  to  the  great  body 
of  their  readers  in  that  age,  and  in  every  age, 
including  even  the  present, — quite  as  much  so  as 
if  they  had  represented  night  and  day  as  being 
produced  by  the  earth  spinning  on  its  axis,  in- 
stead of  speaking  of  the  sun  rising  and  setting. 
In  the  Word  of  God,  both  the  natural  and  super- 
natural are  referred  to  as  the  operation  of  God,  as 
the  manifestation  of  his  glory,  and  the  expres- 
sion of  his  will.  Still,  the  distinction  is  kept  in 
view,  and  is  expressly  appealed  to.  No  specula- 
tive or  abstruse  principle  is  announced,  but  the 
inspired  writers  point  to  an  occurrence  as  in  its 
ver}^  nature  beyond  human  or  mundane  agency, 
and  so  as  evidential  of  an  interposition  from 
heaven,  or  sanctioning  a  revealed  doctrine. 
"  We  know  that  thou  art  a  teacher  come  from 
God :  for  no  man  can  do  these  miracles  that 
thou  doest,  except  God  be  with  him"  («Tohn  iii.  2). 
"  Since  the  world  began  was  it  not  heard  that  any 
man  opened  the  eyes  of  one  that  was  born  blind  " 
(John  ix.  32).  Here  there  are  no  philosophical 
inquiries  as  to  what  the  powers  of  nature  can 
do  and  what  they  cannot,  but  certain  works  are 
appealed  to,  as  being  beyond  all  human  potency. 


152 


GENERAL  EEMAEKS 


The  supernatural,  though  different  from  the 
natural,  is  not  to  be  regarded  as  altogether 
disconnected  from  it,  or  as  standing  in  no  rela- 
tion to  it.  The  supernatural,  in  coming  into 
the  lower  sphere,  acts  in  unison  with  the  agen- 
cies already  there.  This  is  only  what  we  might 
expect,  as  both  are  the  operations  of  God  and 
parts  of  one  comprehensive  plan.  A  careful 
inquiry  will  shew  us  that  the  supernatural  is 
superinduced  upon  the  natural,  and  acts  upon 
the  natural,  subordinating  the  natural  to  it, 
without  destroying  it,  but,  on  the  contrary, 
raising  and  exalting  it,  all  in  very  much  the 
same  way  as  the  higher  natural  acts  towards 
the  lower  natural. 

For  there  is  a  higher  natural  and  a  lower 
natural.  Whether  we  look  to  the  inspired 
record  in  Genesis  or  the  disclosures  of  geology, 
we  are  taught  that  the  vfork  of  creation  was  a 
progressive  one.  First,  there  may  have  been 
a  time  when  the  earth  was  simply  mineral ;  then 
it  appears  clothed  wdth  j^lants ;  animals  in  due 
time  come  forth  to  browse  upon  them  ;  and,  as 
the  completion,  man  stands  up  to  gaze  with 
intelligent  eye  upon  the  whole.  There  is  a 
unity  of  plan  running  along  all  this  series. 
The  plant,  when  it  comes,  is  higher  than  the 
mineral, — a  new  power,  the  vital,  has  been 
superinduced  ;  but  still  the  organic  is  dependent 


ON  THE  SUPERNATURAL.  153 


for  nourisliment  on  tlic  inorganic,  and  all  th 


»' 


le 


forces  which  operate  in  the  mineral  are  active 
in  the  plant.  Look  at  the  more  complicated 
crystals, — look  at  the  frostworks  on  oiir  flag- 
stones and  windows,  so  like  the  tree  in  their 
ramilications, — and  yon  at  once  see  that  powers 
are  operating  there  which  are  to  appear  in  a 
more  advanced  form  in  the  plant.  When  the 
animal  appears,  it  has  something  not  in  the 
plant, — in  particular,  it  has  a  power  of  sensation 
and  voluntary  mrotion  ;  hut  still  it  retains  all  the 
power  that  is  in  the  mineral,  and  is  dependent 
for  food  on  the  vegetahle ;  and  so  closely  are 
the  plant  and  the  hrute  allied,  that  it  is  difficult 
to  draw  a  line  which  will  decidedly  separate  the 
higher  forms  of  the  one  from  the  lower  forms  of 
the  other.  And  when  man  walks  forth  to  con- 
template all  these  ohjects,  it  is  evident  that  there 
is  a  higher  principle  in  him,  which  is  not  in 
the  mineral,  nor  in  the  plant,  nor  in  the  hrute ; 
hut  it  is  just  as  clear,  that  he  has  affinities  with 
the  lower  creation,  arising  from  the  lower  crea- 
tion tending  upwards  toward  him.  Made  of  the 
dust  of  the  ground,  his  hodily  frame  is  suhject 
to  all  the  inorganic  laws  of  the  world,  and  at 
last  returns  to  the  dust,  out  of  which  it  was 
formed.  As  an  organism,  he  is  suhject  to  all 
organic  laws  ;  he  needs  hreath  and  food  from 
without,  and  has  an  allotted  period  of  existence. 


154 


GENERAL  EEMAJRKS 


As  an  animal,  his  bones  and  his  muscles,  his 
very  nerves  and  brain,  are  after  the  same  model 
as  those  of  the  brutes ;  like  them,  he  needs 
organized  matter  whereon  to  feed ;  and  like 
them,  he  is  susceptible  of  pleasure  and  pain. 
It  may  be  maintained  that  the  lower  animals 
are,  in  a  sense,  anticipations  of  humanity,  and 
have  appetites,  instincts,  attachments, — as  for 
offspring  and  home, — perceptions,  and  a  sort  of 
intelUgence,  which,  though  not  identical  with, 
are  homologous  to,  certain  of  the  lower  endow- 
ments of  man. 

All  this  does  not  prove,  as  some  w^ould  argue, 
that  man  is  merely  an  upper  brute,— possibly 
sprung  from  the  monkey,  or  removed  from  it 
only  as  one  species  is  from  another.  In  his 
bodily  frame  he  may  be  simply  a  new  species, — 
the  highest  of  animated  organisms, — with  the 
fore  limbs  turned  into  hands,  and  his  frame  raised 
into  an  upright  attitude, — and  even  in  this,  so 
far  anticipated  by  the  ape.  But  in  his  soul, 
endow^ed  with  the  power  of  discovering  necessary 
and  immutable  truth,  and  of  discerning  the 
difference  between  good  and  evil ;  capable  of 
cherishing  voluntary  affections  —  wdiich  alone 
(and  not  mere  instinctive  attachments)  are  de- 
serving of  the  name  of  love, — and  of  rising  to  the 
knowledge  of  God,  and  of  communion  with  Him  ; 
by  reason  of  this  soul — responsible  and  immortal 


ON  THE  SUPEnXATUnAL. 


155 


— he  belongs  not  merely  to  a  new  species  or 
o-enus  of  nature,  but  to  a  new  order  in  creation. 
In  respect  of  this,  his  nobler  part,  he  is  made  not 
after  the  likeness  of  the  brute,  but  after  the 
image  of  God.  He  stands  on  this  earth,  but 
with  upright  face  he  looks  upward  to  heaven. 

Still,  man  is  not  an  anomaly  nor  an  exception 
in  the  scene  in  which  he  is  j)laced.  That  scene 
has  long  been  in  preparation  for  him,  and  when 
he  arrives,  he  is  to  be  the  head  and  the  crown. 
Superior  to  all  creation,  he  is  yet  allied  to  all 
creation.  Above  the  earth,  he  is  yet  drawn  to  it 
by  an  attraction  which  binds  him  and  it  together. 
In  his  body  connected  with  the  lower  creation, 
in  his  spirit  connected  with  the  Creator,  he 
is  or  ought  to  be  a  bond  connecting  God  more 
intimately  with  his  works.  But,  alas  !  man  is  not 
what  he  was  meant  to  be.  We  cannot  look  on 
man  in  his  present  state  as  the  consummation  of 
creation.  As  the  plant  points  upward  to  the 
animal,  and  the  animal  upwards  to  man,  so  does 
man,  in  his  present  condition  of  groaning  and 
travailing,  anticipate  a  redeemed,  a  regenerated, 
and  a  glorified  humanity. 

There  is  no  incongruity  in  fact  or  in  appear- 
ance between  the  higher  natural  and  the  low^er 
natural ; — between  chemical  action  and  mechani- 
cal power — which  is  controlled  by  the  affinities 
of  bodies ;  between  the  vital  and  the  chemical — 


156 


GENERAL  BEMAFcKS 


whose  attractions  must  give  way  before  the  power 
of  hfe ;  or  between  the  mental  and  the  vital-;— 
which  can  be  so  swayed  and  directed  by  the 
ideas,  purposes,  and  determinations  of  the  mind. 
Each  of  the  new  powers  is  something  superin- 
duced upon  the  old.  I  have  sometimes  thought 
that  the  very  rise  in  the  natural,  from  the  lower 
to  the  higher — so  constant,  so  regular,  so  syste- 
matic, so  evidently  ordained — may  point  to,  and 
almost  guarantee,  a  rise  from  the  natural  to  the 
supernatural.  As  the  inanimate  has  risen  to  the 
animate,  as  the  animal  has  risen  to  man,  so  do 
we  hope  that  the  animal  man  may  rise  to  the 
spiritual  man.  "  Howbeit  that  was  not  first 
which  is  spiritual,  but  that  which  is  natural; 
and  afterward  that  which  is  spiritual"  (1  Cor. 
XV.  46).  I  suppose  that  a  being  of  high  intel- 
ligence, looking  at  the  ape  on  the  pre-adamite 
earth,  might  have  guessed  that  a  creature 
with  higher  endowments  would  soon  appear  to 
carry  out  more  fully  the  capacity  of  the  type ; 
and,  looking  at  man  as  he  is,  at  his  wondrous 
gifts  and  equally  w^ondrous  defects,  I  cherish 
the  hope  that  he  is  but  the  rude  anticipa- 
tion of  what  he  is  to  become.  Howbeit,  when 
that  state  of  things  comes,  the  whole  natural 
shall  be  raised  up  to  the  supernatural,  and  the 
supernatural  shall  be  natural,  as  being  visibly 
embraced    within    the    system,    and    these    oc- 


ON  THE  SUPERNATUPiAL.  157 

casional  interpositions  in  our  era  shall  l)e 
looked  back  upon  as  the  prognostics  of  the 
grander  epoch  which  has  succeeded.  But,  in- 
stead of  keeping  up  in  these  aii\y  regions  of 
speculation,  we  have  firmer  ground  to  stand  on 
as  we  come  down  to  remark  that,  as  the  lower 
nature  is  subjected  to  higher  nature,  so  is  na- 
tural action  subordinated  to  the  supernatural 
agency. 

Not  even  at  the  present  advanced  stage  of 
knowledge  are  we  able  to  say  how  the  higher 
natural  stands  toward  the  low^er  natural,  how, 
for  example,  the  chemical  works  upon  the 
mechanical,  or  the  vital  on  the  electric,  or  the 
mental  upon  the  animal  functions.  If  we  do  not 
know  the  modus  of  the  action  of  one  kind  of 
natural  force  /upon  another,  even  after  all  the 
experiments  of  modern  science,  how  can  we 
expect  to  know  the  mode  of  the  operation  of  the 
supernatural  upon  the  natural,  in  which  one  of 
the  active  powers  is  from  a  region  on  which  we 
cannot  experiment,  and  operates  according  to 
laws  w^hich  we  have  no  adequate  means  of  dis- 
covering by  generalization.  When  such  ques- 
tions are  started,  our  wisest  course  is  to  say, 
wdth  the  parents  of  the  blind  man  when  they 
were  interrogated  as  to  their  son,  "  By  what 
means  he.  now  seeth  we  know  not."  But  it  is 
plainly  within  our  reach  to  note,  that  there  is  an 


158  GENERAL  REMARKS 

analogy  between  the  action  of  the  higher  agents 
of  nature  on  the  lower  and  the  action  of  the 
supernatural  upon  the  natural.  When  the  vital 
power — whatever  it  be — works  among  the  me- 
chanical and  chemical  forces,  it  does  not  annihi- 
late them,  it  simply  subjects  them  to  its  sway. 
We  often  see  all  the  three  combine  in  one  result, 
and  even  when  the  lower  is  restrained  by  the 
higher  it  has  still  the  tendency  to  work,  and  will 
work  as  soon  as  the  restraint  is  removed.  Again, 
when,  by  an  act  of  my  will,  I  move  my  arm,  the 
mental  does  not  supersede  the  physiological, 
it  rather  summons  it  into  action.  So  wdien 
the  supernatural  descends  among  natural  forces, 
physical  or  mental,  it  may  not  be  to  abolish 
them,  or  nullify  them,  or  even  supersede  them. 
Even  when  they  are  counteracted,  w^e  may  see 
their  tendency  breaking  out  at  the  points  at 
which  the  supernatural  is  not  acting ;  and,  in 
many  cases,  we  may  trace,  in  the  effect,  their 
joint  operation,  in  which  there  is  no  dishonour 
put  upon  the  supernatural  in  its  association 
with  the  natural,  as  long  as  natural  agents  are 
agents  of  God,  which  they  always  are,  excepting 
in  so  far  as  they  may  be  contaminated  by  the  sin 
of  man. 

The  natural  does  appear  operating  and  co- 
operating with  the  supernatural  in  not  a  few  of 
the  dispensations  of  God.     Every  one  observes, 


ON  THE  SUPEJlNATUriAL.  159 

in  the  pages  of  the  inspired  vohime,  the  native 
talents,  tastes,  and  temperaments  of  the  writer. 
In  the  Pentateuch  we  have  a  narrative  usually 
clear  and  hracing  as  our  atmos})here,  hut,  when 
the  suhject  requires,  darkened  with  awful  clouds 
or  shooting  forth  swift  lightnings.  In  the  Book 
of  Job,  we  look,  as  by  a  window,  into  the  hearts 
of  primitive  thinkers  as  they  pondered  the  mys- 
teries of  God's  government,  as  they  wandered 
in  the  darkness,  as  they  erred  in  their  self- con- 
fidence, and  were  rebuked  by  the  light.  The 
tire  of  David,  as  it  rages  in  its  fierceness  or 
melts  in  its  tenderness,  breaks  out  in  every  one 
of  his  Psalms.  The  wisdom  of  wisdom  is  graven 
— as  lines  are  on  the  brow — of  every  one  of  the 
sayings  of  Solomon.  The  word  seraphic,  so 
often  applied,  is. vividly  descriptive  of  the  flights 
of  Isaiah  as  he  soars  upward  into  his  native 
sphere  above,  with  unwearied  wing,  glistening 
in  the  beams  of  heaven.  We  see  that  Jeremiah 
has  been  made  to  eat  a  roll  full  of  mourninof, 
lamentation,  and  woe,  which,  however,  in  the 
rumination  of  it — like  pensive  melancholy — is 
not  without  its  profit  and  even  its  sweetness. 
The  soul  of  each  of  the  four  Evangelists  takes  in 
so  much  of  the  spirit  of  Jesus ;  thus  ]\Iatthew 
accepts  one  part,  and  John  drinks  in  another 
portion ;  and  each  gives  out  what  he  has  been 
able  to  receive  of  the  fulness.     The  underlying 


IGO 


GENERAL  REMARKS 


doctrine  is  the  same  in  the  Epistles  of  Paul, 
of  James,  of  Peter,  and  John  ;  but  each  brings 
out  in  his  own  way  the  truth  which  approves 
itself  most  entirely  to  him.  The  rapid  ratio- 
cination of  Paul  has  made  him  relished  by  the 
western  intellect,  while  his  eagerness  of  spirit 
and  fervour  of  feeling  have  carried  forward  many 
who  would  have  experienced  a  difficulty  in  fol- 
lowing his  quick  transitions  of  thought.  James 
has  ever  recommended  himself,  both  by  his  style 
and  sentiment,  to  those  wdio  delight  in  calm- 
ness, prudence,  and  practical  wisdom.  Certain 
German  theologians  are  fond  of  magnifying 
the  Pauline  and  Petrine  differences ;  to  me  it 
seems  very  clear,  that  the  doctrine  of  both  is 
obviously  the  same,  and  that  even  the  manner 
of  the  two  does  not  differ  so  jvidely,  though  I 
think  w^e  do  not  discover ,  so  vigorous  a  logical 
step  in  Peter,  while  at  times  there  would  burst 
out  a  greater  impetus,  were  it  not  that  his 
spirit  has  been  subdued  by  frequent  falls,  fol- 
lowed by  searching  corrections.  With  those  wiio 
love  intuitive  contemplation,  and  who  are  averse 
to  all  discursive  or  concatenated  thought,  in  which 
there  is  more  than  a  single  step  between  the  pre- 
miss and  conclusion — more  than  the  going  back 
from  a  fact  to  a  principle — John  has  been  an 
especial  favourite,  as  he  looks  himself,  and  makes 
us  look,  directly  on  the  object,  aiding  us  at  times 


ON  THE  SUPERNATUniL.  101 

only  by  a  symbol, — and  there  are  seasons,  I  think, 
in  the  lives  of  all  of  us  when  we  feel  that  it  is 
thus — even  by  him  who  himself  leaned  upon 
Jesus'  bosom — that  w^e  are  brought  nearest  to 
God  and  to  heaven.  It  is  a  most  happy  thing 
for  us  that  the  pure  light  of  heaven  is  thus  bent 
and  made  to  shew  various  colours  as  it  reaches 
our  mundane  sphere,  being  reflected  from,  and 
refracted  by,  the  hearts  of  holy  men  of  God,  who 
"  spake  as  they  were  moved  by  the  Holy  Ghost," 
but  who,  at  the  same  time,  spake  in  human 
tongues  to  human  beings. 

We  see,  too,  that  as  the  spiritual  comes  in 
among  the  natural  in  the  human  heart,  it  does 
not  destroy  human  incUviduality  and  nationality, 
though  it  sanctifies  and  elevates  both.  The  man 
of  high  intellect  is  ^-till  a  man  of  high  intel- 
lect, while  the  man  of  weak  understanding  must 
remain  a  man  of  w^eak  understanding ;  the  man 
of  resolute  will  is  still  characterized  by  strong  de- 
termination ;  the  man  of  warm  feeling  is  now,  as 
before,  easily  moved  and  melted ;  and  the  man  of 
eccentricity  may  continue  to  do  singular  actions, 
— the  whole  of  the  natural  endowments  being, 
all  the  wdiile,  kept  under  strict  moral  restraints, 
attracted  by  more  powerful  magnetic  motives,  and 
directed  to  higher  ends  up  in  the  heavens.  We 
have  to  add,  that  the  lower  propensities  peculiar 
to  the  individual — the  lust,  the  vanity,  the  pride, 

L 


162  GENERAL  BEMARKS 

tlie  self-esteem — will  be  apt,  also,  to  stay  deep 
down  in  the  heart,  to  burst  out  at  times  in 
terrible  volcanoes,  and  pour  their  lava  on  all 
around,  till  such  time  as  their  source  is  dried 
up  by  the  power  of  the  "  spirit  which  lusteth 
against  the  flesh,"  and  shall  finally  subdue  it. 

The  peculiarities  of  his  training,  of  his  race, 
and  his  country,  appear  in  the  Christian,  and  in 
his  very  Christianity.  The  religion  of  the  poor  is 
of  a  somewhat  different  type  from  the  religion  of 
the  respectable  and  comfortable  middle  class,  and 
the  religion  of  both  is  not  the  same  as  that  of  the 
refined  and  aristocratic  classes.  The  Christianity 
of  the  rude  and  ignorant  differs  from  that  of  the 
highly  civilized  and  the  learned.  The  Christian 
student  of  Oxford  differs  from  the  Christian 
student  of  the  Dissenting  Academy,  and  of  the* 
American  Colleges,  w^hile  all  three  differ  from  the 
Christian  student  of  Edinburgh,  who,  again,  feels 
that  he  is  not  the  same  as  the  Christian  student 
of  Berlin  or  Geneva.  The  Christian  man  of  the 
type  of  the  covenant,  burning  earDcstly  to  make 
his  nation  and  his  church  what  they  ought  to  be, 
differs  from  the  Christian  of  the  puritan  phase, 
asserting  individual  liberty,  and  seeking  to  ele- 
vate the  world  by  means  of  individual  spiritual 
men  leavening  the  mass  around  them  ;  and  both 
differ  from  the  Christian  who  sings  Wesley's 
hymns,  and  gets  his  feehngs  warmed  at  the  class 


ox  THE  SUPERNATURAL.  163 

meeting,  and  pays  and  prays  for  the  conversion  of 
sinners ;  and  scarcely  one  of  these  understands, 
as  certainly  none  of  them  is  understood  by,  the 
Christian  of  the  AngHcan  estabhshment,  who 
would,  by  all  means,  have  religion  respected  and 
respectable,  lifting  its  head  cahnly  but  boldly  in 
the  high  places  of  the  land,  while  he  would  have 
the  gospel  preached  to  the  poor,  without  money 
and  without  price.  The  character  of  the  man, 
of  his  early  history,  and  of  his  temperament,  is 
apt  to  come  out  in  the  struggles  made  by  the 
soul,  when  the  spiritual  power  is  bringing  it 
under  its  sway.  This  appears,  particularly,  in 
our  seasons  of  revival.  The  breath  of  the  return- 
ing spring  may  be  felt  by  all  the  plants  of  the 
earth,  by  the  strong  oak  which  stands  out  in  the 
breeze  and  in  the  sunshine,  by  the  lily  down  in 
the  waters,  and  the  fern  in  the  dark  glens  or 
caves ;  but  each  feels  it  after  its  own  fashion,  and 
has  its  own  hindrances  to  contend  against  as  it 
would  burst  into  life,  and  is  liable  to  its  own  ele- 
mental attacks  and  internal  maladies  ;  and  so  it 
is  with  the  spiritual  life  in  the  soul.  He  who 
has  been  wisely  and  carefully  trained,  both  in 
rehgious  knowledge  and  self  government,  may 
be  affected  as  deeply  when  he  feels  himself  under 
the  lirm  hand  of  a  Divine  power  arresting  him, 
as  is  the  man  who  has  received  no  training,  or  a 
bad  training,  and  has  just  heard  the  Gospel  for 


164  GENERAL  EEMAEKS 

the  first  time  :  but  the  struggle  in  the  case  of  the 
latter,  as  never  having  been  taught  to  restrain 
his  impulses,  will  probably  be  vastly  more  violent, 
and  be  accompanied  by  a  greater  number  of 
those  pathological  affections  which  are  produced 
by  high  feeling.  Our  very  national  peculiarities 
come  out  in  our  Christianity.  In  the  early 
Church,  the  Christian  Jew  was  still  a  seeker  after 
supernatural  signs,  and  the  Christian  Greek  a 
a  seeker  after  a  subtle  and  dialectic  wisdom,  and 
the  Christian  Galatian  an  impulsive  Celt,  and  the 
Christian  Roman  an  organizer  of  men.  In  these 
times,  the  German  Christian  is  still  a  German, 
and  the  French  believer  is  still  a  Frenchman,  and 
the  English  and  the  Scotch  shew  their  national 
characteristics  in  their  religion.  In  our  narrow- 
ness, we  Britons  look  on  the  German  Christian 
as  somewhat  too  dreamy  and  passive,  and  the 
Frenchman  too  quick  and  sentimental,  but  we 
should  remember  that  they  shew  the  same  pecu- 
liarities in  their  worldly  pursuits.  The  English- 
man thinks  the  Irish  minister' too  oratorical  when 
he  preaches,  and  the  Scotchman  too  argumen- 
tative, \yhile  the  Irishman  and  Scotchman  com- 
plain of  the  quietness  of  the  English  preacher. 
All  these  are  apt,  when  they  view  one  another 
at  a  distance,  to  doubt  of  each  other  s  Chris- 
tianity, but  as  they  come  nearer,  and  hold  a 
closer  communion,  they  find  that  with   minor 


0^^  TEE  S  UPERNA  TURAL.  1 G  5 

differences  they  have  far  more  important  points 
of  resemblance, — having  all  of  them  a  family  like- 
ness, as  being  begotten  of  God,  and  growing  into 
a  likeness  to  their  elder  brother.  > 


16g  THE  SYSTEM  IN 


CHAPTER    II. 

THE  SYSTEM  IN  THE  SUPEENATUEAL. 
SECT.  I.— THERE  IS  SYSTEM  IN  THE  SUPERNATURAL. 

By  system  we  are  to  understand  things  arranged, 
objects  or  truths  set  in  order.  There  are  such 
systems  in  nature.  The  sun  and  the  bodies 
rolhng  round  him  constitute  such  a  system. 
There  are  evidently  systems  in  the  starry 
heavens.  The  atmosphere,  with  its  rarefactions 
and  condensations,  with  its  cahns  and  its  storms, 
is  a  system ;  as  is  also  the  ocean,  with  its  evapo- 
rations, and  the  counterbalancing  flow  into  it  of 
waters  from  the  land.  Every  organism,  vegetable 
and  animal,  is  such  a  system, — all  the  means  are 
ends,  and  all  the  ends  means.  And  as  there  are 
systems  in  nature,  so  nature  as  a  whole  is  a  sys- 
tem. The  phenomena  are  all  correlated,  as 
causes  and  effects,  or  by  mutual  resemblances 
and  affinities.  Persons  are  accustomed  to  ex- 
press this,  by  saying  that  all  things  are  governed 
by  law.  But  there  has  been  an  immense  amount 
of  confusion,  and  not  a  little  error,  in  the  views 


TEE  SUPERNATURAL.  167 

entertained  by  many  as  to  the  nature  of  physical 
law,  and  the  relation  of  law  to  God.  The  lan- 
guage often  employed  implies  that  there  is  a 
necessity  laid  on  God  to  proceed  by  natural  law. 
And  it  should  at  once  be  admitted,  that  every 
act  of  God  is,  and  must  be,  conformed  to  his  own 
moral  law,  that  is,  moral  nature.  But  it  has  been 
shewn  again  and  again  that  law  in  morals  and 
law  in  the  occurrence  of  physical  phenomena 
are  not  the  same  things.  It  should  be  allowed, 
too,  that  law,  in  the  sense  of  system  or  co-ordi- 
nation, rules  everywhere  in  nature.  But  it  is 
rash  in  the  extreme  to  affirm  that  God  should, 
or  that  he  must,  act  in  this  way  and  in  no  other. 
The  order  of  nature  has  all  the  appearance  of 
an  arrangement  or  device  for  the  accomplish- 
ment of  w4se  and  beneficent  ends.  It  is  a  fact 
that  it  is  made  to  supply  the  w^ants  of  God's 
creatures,  and  to^  render  nature  intelligible  by 
the  intellic^ent  creature.  Whatever  else  natural 
law  may  be,  it  is  certainly  an  expression  of  the 
Divine  wdsdom,  as  a  wise  means  of  accomplish- 
ing a  good  purpose. 

I  am  to  shew^,  in  these  Sections,  that  in  the 
supernatural  dispensations  of  God  there  is  a 
grand  system,  wdth  subordinate  systems, — a  sun 
with  planets,  and  planets  with  satellites, — an  or- 
ganism made  up  of  living  organisms.  But  let 
us   understand  precisely  how  much,  and   how 


168  TEE  S YSTEM  IN 

little,  is  meant  and  implied  in  this  language. 
It  is  not  to  be  interpreted  as  involving  that  God 
behoves  to  proceed  by  natural  law,  we  being 
judges ;  or  that  from  the  necessity  of  his  nature, 
or  of  things,  he  can  proceed  no  otherwise.  No 
doubt,  all  that  God  does  must  fall  out  according 
to  a  purpose  in  the  Divine  mind;  but  the  indi- 
vidual occurrences  may,  or  they  may  not,  be 
dependent  on  created  agencies.  It  should  not 
be  allowed,  for  one  moment,  that  we  are  not  at 
liberty  to  look  upon  an  event  as  springing  from 
the  supernatural  power  of  God,  unless  it  can  be 
shewn  to  be  a  link  in  a  concatenated  combina- 
tion. There  is  a  loose  and  empty  style  of  speak- 
ing in  our  day,  about  miracles  being,  after  all, 
referable  to  a  higher  law,  which  either  has  no 
definite  meaning,  or  may  be  understood  in  a 
misleading  sense,  and,  at  the  best,  is  in  no  way 
fitted  to  gain  the  opponents  of  supernaturalism, 
who,  by  law,  always  mean  one  consistent  thing, 
and  that  is,  natural  law.  If  it  is  meant  that 
miracles  can  all  be  referred  to  some  higher 
natural  law,  discoverable  or  undiscoverable,  the 
impression  may  be  left,  that  they  are  like 
meteors  or  like  mesmerism,  simply  mysteries 
which  may  yet  come  within  natural  explanation, 
and  which  cannot,  therefore,  be  evidential  of 
supernatural  action.  If  it  is  meant  that  they 
can  all  be  referred  to  some  supernatural  law, 


TEE  S  UPJERNA  TURAL.  1 G  9 

known  or  unknown,  the  assertion  is  made  with- 
out a  warrant  from  reason  or  from  revelation. 
It  would  be  most  presumptuous  in  us  to  affirm 
that  we  can,  in  every  case,  discover  the  law  to 
which  the  supernatural  operations  belong,  or 
so  much  as  be  sure  that  there  is  a  law.  It  is 
quite  conceivable,  indeed,  that  there  may  be 
some  such  law  beyond  our  ken,  but  of  what  use 
can  it  be  to  appeal  to  a  law  unknown  and  un- 
knowable. It  is  quite  as  conceivable,  that  God 
may  have  wrought  in  our  world  an  isolated 
occurrence,  having  no  connexion,  physical, 
causal,  or  dependent,  with  any  other  mundane 
occurrence,  except  the  profound  relations  which 
all  things  have  one  to  another  in  the  Divine 
mind. 

But  keeping  these  explanations  steadily  in 
view,  we  may  reverently  inquire  whether  there  is 
not  system  in  the  supernatural  revelations  and 
dispensations  of  God ;  and  as  we  do  so,  we  shall 
find  not  a  few  traces  of  connexion  and  plan.  I 
speak  of  traces,  for  in  many  cases  we  have  nothing 
more  than  prints, — such  as  we  have  seen  in  the 
snow,  giving  evidence  of  a  living  creature  having 
moved  in  a  particular  direction,  but  scarcely  in- 
dicating what  the  animal  was.  Seldom  can  we 
rise  to  so  full  an  apprehension  of  the  superna- 
tural system  as  we  have  attained  in  these  last 
days  of  the  natural.     A  number  of  reasons  can 


170 


TEE  SYSTEM  IX 


be  given  for  this.  An  obvious  one  is,  that  we 
have  scarcely  so  kirge  a  body  of  clear  facts  out 
of  which  to  rise  to  the  knowledge  of  the  law  by 
generalization.  Another  certainly  is,  that  we 
seldom  see  the  clear^^and  undisturbed  operation 
of  the  supernatural  and  spiritual  law — in  most 
cases  we  obtain  only  interrupted  glimpses.  How 
difficult  did  astronomers  find  it  for  long  ages  to 
determine  the  precise  path  followed  by  the 
planets,  not  because  the  planetary  motions  are 
irregular,  but  solely  because  no  one  ever  saw 
them  performing  a  full  revolution;  all  that  could 
be  seen  was,  that  they  were  in  one  position  at 
one  time,  and  in  a  different  position  at  a  different 
time,  and  it  was  out  of  the  individual  observa- 
tions that  they  had  to  gather  the  law  by  compu- 
tation. We  are  in  much  the  same  position  when 
we  would  settle  the  law  of  supernatural  occur- 
rences. We  see  that  there  is  a  course  pursued; 
\^e  may  even  anticipate  it  to  some  extent, — as  in 
ancient  times  they  could  predict  the  time  of  the 
rising  of  a  planet,  when  as  yet  they  were  igno- 
rant of  the  precise  law  of  the  planetary  move- 
ments; but  we  may  commit  great  blunders  if  we 
dogmatically  affirm  that  we  know  its  precise  orbit 
as  it  moves  through  space  and  time, — quite  as 
great  as  the  ancients  fell  into  when  they  settled 
prematurely  the  planetary  paths  into  cycles  and 
epicycles.     A  third  reason  may  very  possibly  be, 


TEE  SUrETtXATURAL.  ITl 

that  the  laws  of  the  supernatural  may,  in  their 
very  nature,  he  heyond  human  comprehension; 
their  cycles  may  he  more  sweeping  than  those  of 
the  farthest  travelling  comets,  or  the  largest 
starry  constellations ;  they  may  run  from  eternity 
to  eternity,  or  come  out  from  eternity  into  time, 
or  their  rule  may  lie  altogether  in  the  Divine  in- 
telligence and  will,  and  not  he  disclosed  to  us  hy 
a  positive  statement,  or  hy  an  ohservable  series 
of  connected  occurrences. 

Making  these  abatements,  we  may  yet  maintain 
that  we  discover  clear  indications  of  ordination 
and  subordination  in  the  supernatural  dispensa- 
tions of  God,  analogous  to,  though  by  no  means 
identical  with,  those  of  the  kingdom  of  nature. 
There  are  every^vhere  relations,  evidently  heaven- 
designed,  of  one  thing  to  another.  There  are 
parts  related  to  parts,  and  all  constituting  a  con- 
nected whole.  There  is  an  apparatus  instituted 
to  produce  a  grand  result,  and,  everywhere  in  the 
process,  means  producing  ends,  and  ends  which 
are  means  to  higher  ends.  There  are  series 
flow^ing  on  like  rivers  in  their  appointed  channel, 
and  bearing  their  ^vaters,  and  much  wealth  that 
floats  on  them,  to  their  appointed  destination. 
There  are  times  and  seasons — like  the  days  and 
years  and  geological  epochs  of  the  natural  ^vorld 
— which  begin  at  a  point  and  reach  a  consum- 
mation.   There  are  correspondences  among  cha- 


172 


THE  SYSTEM  IN 


racters  and  ordinances  not  unlike  those  beautiful 
homotypal,  homologous,  and  analogous  corres- 
pondences which  later  science  has  been  dis- 
covering everywhere  in  the  vegetable  and  animal 
kingdoms.  There  is  a  gradual  advance  in  light 
and  knowledge,  and  a  development  like  that  of 
the  plant — till  seed  is  brought  forth  ;  like  that  of 
the  geological  ages — till  the  earlier  types  are  all 
fully  unfolded  and  embodied  in  an  archetype. 
There  is  more  than  a  conglomerate  of  systems, 
there  is  a  group,  there  is  a  system,  of  systems. 
AVhatever  other  centres  the  inferior  systems  may 
have,  they  all  form  part  of  one  grand  system, 
circling  round  an  attracting  body,  which  keeps 
them  in  their  places,  and  illuminates  them  as 
they  rotate  around  it.  Need  I  say  that  this  ob- 
ject is  Jesus  Christ,  in  his  incarnation,  his  life, 
his  death,  and  ascension. 

The  supernatural  dispensation  has  respect 
throughout  to  God,  to  his  law,  and  his  glory, 
on  the  one  hand;  and  to  man,  to  his  sins,  and 
his  restoration  to  peace  and  holiness  and  com- 
munion with  God  through  a  mediator,  on  the 
other.  It  is  said  to  originate  in  the  Divine  love, 
to  be  the  product  of  the  Divine  wisdom  and 
power,  and  to  manifest  the  Divine  righteousness 
and  faithfulness.  It  brings  peace  to  man,  plants 
him  on  the  elevation  from  which  he  had  fallen, 
and  sends  him  forth  on  a  career  of  evangelical 


THE  SUPERNATURAL.  173 

obedience.  It  is  not  needful  to  quote  isolated 
passages  to  prove  this, — it  is  written  on  the  very 
face  of  the  Word  of  God,  it  is  woven  into  the 
very  texture  of  the  supernatural  system.  It  is 
briefly  expressed  in  the  song  of  the  multitude  of 
the  heavenly  host,  "  Glory  to  God  in  the  highest, 
and  on  earth  peace,  good  will  toward  men." 

There  are  intimations  not  obscure  in  Scripture 
of  particular  economies  holding  a  relation  to  the 
great  one  devised  in  the  counsels  of  a  past  eter- 
nity, wdiich  is  being  executed  progressively  in  time, 
and  is  reaching  forward  to  the  coming  eternity. 
It  is  very  often  described  as  a  covenant.     David 
speaks  of  it  as  "  an  everlasting  covenant,  ordered 
in  all  things  and  sure"  (2  Sam.  xxiii.  5).     Of 
that  covenant  Jesus  is  the  mediator  (Heb.  xiii.  6). 
That  covenant  takes  special  forms  in  different 
circumstances  and  in  successive  ages.    It  is,  for 
example,  a  covenant  with  Noah,  with  promises 
given  to  him  and  his  posterity,  and  obligations 
laid  on  them  (Gen.  vi.  12).    It  is  a  covenant  with 
Abraham,  concentrating  titles  and  privileges  in 
him  and  in  his  seed  (xxii.  17,  18).     It  is  a  cove- 
nant  with  the  children  of  Israel   at   Sinai,  in 
which  a  most  instructive  but  somewhat  burden- 
some ritual  is  enjoined,  while  large  assurances  are 
held  out  to  them  (Deut.  iv.  13,  &c.).    It  is  entered 
into  specially  with  King  David  as  the  father  of  a 
seed  (Ps.  Ixxxix,  3).     The  later  prophets  speak 


174 


THE  SYSTEM  IN 


of  the  covenant  in  its  older  form  giving  way  in 
favour  of  a  new  covenant.  "Behold  the  days 
come,  saith  the  Lord,  that  I  will  make  a  new 
covenant  with  the  house  of  Israel  and  with  the 
house  of  Judah."  "  After  those  days,  saith  the 
Lord,  I  will  put  my  law  in  their  inward  parts, 
and  write  it  in  their  hearts,  and  will  he  their 
God,  and  they  shall  be  my  people  (Jer.  xxxi. 
31,  33).  In  interpreting  such  passages,  the  word 
covenant  has  often  been  stretched  far  too  rigidly, 
to  bring  heavenly  things  down  to  the  level  of 
human  transactions.  Still,  the  language  points 
to  a  counsel  of  vast  depth  which  we  cannot  fully 
fathom,  and  to  an  arrangement  with  obligations 
and  sanctions  entered  into  with  men,  in  all  cases 
through  a  sacrifice — the  typical  sacrifices  in  the 
older  dispensation,  and  the  real  sacrifice  in  the 
New  Testament. 

The  word  ordinance  is  applied  by  the  inspired 
writers  to  the  arrangements  which  God  has  made 
in  nature.  "  Thou  hast  established  the  earth, 
and  it  abideth;  they  continue  this  day  according 
to  thine  ordinances,  for  all  are  thy  servants" 
(Ps.  cxix.  90,  91):  compare  Job  xxxviii.  33  ;  Jer. 
xxxi.  35;  xxxiii.  25).  It  is  the  word  applied 
in  Scripture  to  those  orderly  injunctions  which 
God  laid  down  to  the  Church  as  to  the  services 
required  of  His  people.  The  covenants  of  God 
had  all  ordinances  of  Divine  service  (Heb.  ix.  11). 


THE  SUPERNATURAL,  175 

In  the  Okl  Testament  Church  there  was  in 
the  priesthood  an  order  of  Melchizedek  (Heh. 
V.  G,  7),  and  an  order  of  Aaron  (Heb.  vii.  11). 
The  sanctuary  and  its  furniture  were  all  made 
after  a  pattern  shewn  by  God  to  Moses  on  Mount 
Sinai  (Heb.  viii.  5). 

There  are  also  traces  of  a  plan  in  the  New 
Testament.  It  is  a  kingdom,  a  kingdom  set  up 
on  the  earth,  not  a  kingdom  of  this  world,  but 
the  kingdom  of  heaven  upon  earth,  with  a  living 
king,  but  to  be  established  and  defended  not 
with  carnal  but  spiritual  weapons  (John  xviii. 
36;  2  Cor.  x.  4).  It  is  a  house,  a  building  in 
which  Christ  rejected  is  the  corner-stone,  and 
built  upon  him  are,  first  Apostles,  and  then  all  his 
followers,  each  in  his  own  place,  as  living^ stones. 
The  company  of  the  faithful  is  at  first  a  very 
small  one,  meeting  in  an  upper  room  at  Jeru- 
salem ;  but,  in  consequence  of  a  predetermined 
and  prayed  for  outpouring  of  the  Spirit — tlie  re- 
ward and  the  first-fruits  of  Christ's  work — the 
number  is  largely  and  rapidly  increased ;  and  in 
an  age  or  two  the  Gospel  is  preached  for  a  wit- 
ness in  all  the  provinces  of  the  Roman  empire. 
But  in  the  midst  of  these  triumphs  there  are 
intimations  tliat  antichrist  is  already  working, 
that  there  will  be  a  long  falling  away,  and 
that  the  Church  will  have  much  to  sufi'er  (2 
Thess.  iii.  3 1—2  ;  1  Tim.  iv.  1—8).    The  inspired 


176  THE  SYSTEM  IN 

volume  closes  with  a  prophecy  of  thmgs  that 
"  must  be  hereafter"  (Rev.  iv.  1),  in  which  there 
is  a  book  of  Providence  with  seven  seals  opened, 
and  seven  angels  sounding  trumpets,  and  seven 
vials  poured  forth,  all  shewing  that  there  is  a 
pre-ordained  system  in  the  evolutions,  and 
battles,  and  final  triumphs  of  the  Church.  The 
history  of  that  Church  is  symbolized  in  the  life 
of  its  earthly  head.  Descending  from  heaven, 
its  earthly  birth  is  in  the  stable  at  Bethlehem ; 
it  goes  on  doing  good,  and  spreading  a  hal- 
lowed influence  around  it,  in  lowliness  and  com- 
parative obscurity ;  and  in  the  conflict  in  which 
it  seems  defeated  it  gains  its  greatest  triumphs, 
and  when  it  seems  buried  out'  of  sight  it  rises 
and  reigns  for  ever. 

In  the  Sections  which  follow,  I  am  about  to 
shew  that  Revelation  is  systematic  throughout. 
After  this  has  been  done,  the  reader  will  be  in 
a  better  position  to  appreciate  the  advantages 
arising  from  this  mode  of  procedure.  At  this 
place  it  will  be  enough  to  indicate  them  in  rude 
outline.  The  systematic  character  of  the  alleged 
revelation,  its  close  connexions,  and  its  varied 
relations  to  God  and  to  man,  enable  us  to  estab- 
lish with  more  ease  and  certainty,  that  it  is  a 
real  revelation  of  God.  The  general  super- 
natural character  of  the  revelation  also  takes 
out  of  the  region  of  the  natural  a  number  of 


THE  SUPERNATURAL.  177 

events  wliicli  we  could  not  certainly  pronounce 
to  be  miraculous,  unless  from  their  connexion 
with  the  system.  The  whole  becomes  more 
comprehensible  by  the  mind  of  man,  which 
seeks  after  the  correlations  of  things,  when  we 
see  somewhat  of  the  plan  of  the  procedure  and 
the  ends  contemplated.  Nor  is  it  a  small  advan- 
tage of  tlie  orderly  character  of  the  revelation 
of  God,  that  when  we  apprehend  it,  w^e  are  able 
at  once  to  set  aside  certain  pretensions  to  super- 
natural action — just  as  the  naturalist,  from  his 
acquaintance  with  the  homologies  of  nature,  at 
once  turns  away  from  the  stories  about  the  unicorn 
and  the  sea  serpent.  Nor  is  it  to  be  omitted, 
that  as  the  knowledge  of  natural  laws  gives  us 
prescience,  and  enables  us  so  far  to  anticipate 
the  future,  so  the  systems  of  types,  of  prophecy 
and  doctrine,  and  the  general  laws  of  the  spiri- 
tual economy,  open  far  ranging  views  of  the 
coming  destiny  of  our  world,  and  give  us 
glimpses  through  the  rolling  mists  of  the  world 
to  come. 


M 


178 


THE  SYSTEM  IN 


SECT.  II.— THE  TYPICAL  SYSTEM  OF  REVELATION, 

Every  man  of  science  knows  that  there  is  a 
system  of  types  in  nature.  Tracing  it  from  the 
geological  ages  down  to  the  present  time,  we  find 
it  characterized  by  several  marked  features. 

First,  there  is  a  set  of  agencies  in  nature  pro- 
ducing orderly  results.  We  see  this  even  in 
inanimate  creation,  in  the  spheroidal  shapes  of 
the  planets,  in  the  elliptic  movements  of  the 
bodies  moving  round  the  sun,  and  in  the  motions 
of  the  stars  through  space.  We  may  perceive 
it  on  the  earth,  in  the  regular  crystalline  forms 
which  minerals  assume,  and  which  bring  them 
under  rigid  mathematical  laws.  Every  one  may 
observe  it  in  the  forms  of  plants  and  animals, 
and  in  the  cycles  which  they  run  as  they  advance 
from  their  germ  through  settled  stages  to  their 
maturity,  and  then  die  and  disappear.  The  cell 
out  of  which  the  whole  structure  is  formed  has 
its  regular  shape  and  constitution.  Every  mem- 
ber has  its  model  form ;  the  stem  in  the  plant, 
the  bone  in  the  animal,  being  typically  a  column 
enlarged  at  each  end.  Every  organ  of  the  plant, 
be  it  leaf,  or  branchlet,  or  root,  is  made  to  take 
its  own  form,  and  there  is  a  typical  shape  for 
each  of  these  in  eveiy  species  of  plant.  There 
is,  likewise,  a  model  for  every  vertebra  in  the 


THE  SUFERXATURAL. 


179 


backbone,  and  for  every  limb  of  the  animal.  l>y 
the  combination  of  the  several  typical  parts,  the 
whole  plant  and  animal  is  also  made  to  take  a 
general  typical  form,  which  allies  it  with  tlie 
members  of  the  organic  kingdoms,  and  a  special 
typical  form,  which  distinguishes  it  from  all 
others. 

Secondly,    the   agencies    at   work   produce  a 
series    of   orderly    results   in    succession,   each 
growing  out  of  others  antecedent.     It  is  thus 
that  we  have  the  "  herb  yielding  seed,  and  the 
fruit   tree  yielding   fruit  after  his   kind,  whose 
seed  is  in  itself  after  his  kind,"  and  the  animal 
begetting  an  offspring  after  its  own  likeness.     It 
is  thus  that  in  the  geological  ages  we  have  every 
epoch  arising  out  of  the  preceding  one,  by  causes 
natural  or  supernatural.     Some  have  supposed 
that  the  whole  can  be  accounted  for  by  natural 
causes   still  operating,   and  have    certainly  ex- 
plained much  in    this  way,   though   they  have 
hitherto  failed  to  give  any  account  of  the  intro- 
duction of  the  first  organism,  or  of  successive 
orders  of  plants  and  animals.     Others  have  been 
more  inclined  to  think  that  the  production  of 
new  species  of  animated  beings  has  proceeded 
from  natural  causes  undiscovered,  perhaps  un- 
discoveraljle  by  man,  and  certainly  not  acting  in 
the  present  state  of  things.     Others  at  once  call 
in  a  supernatural  power  to  account  for  the  pro- 


180 


TEE  STSTE2I  IN 


duction  of  every  new  species  of  living  being.  It 
is  not  lieeclfal  for  our  present  purpose  to  take 
any  side  in  this  controversy,  except  to  declare 
that  natural  causes  certainly  seem  utterly  inca- 
pable of  producing  such  a  being  as  man,  and 
that  the  statement  of  Scripture  that  man  was 
created  by  a  special  act  is  in  full  accordance  with 
the  facts  of  science.  It  is  certain  on  all  the 
theories  that,  by  an  agency  of  God,  natural  or 
supernatural,  one  state  of  things  has  arisen  out  of 
another;  part  of  the  causes,  those  bearing  on  the 
inanimate  portion  of  the  earth,  being  allowed  on 
all  hands  to  be  natural,  and  the  whole  being 
resolved,  on  every  hypothesis,  by  the  religious 
man,  into  the  counsel  of  God.  Coming  down  to 
the  human  and  historical  period,  we  find  the 
present  state  of  things  to  be  the  issue  of  all  that 
has  gone  before.  Thus  the  civilization  of  these 
times  is  the  product  of  a  long  series  of  causes, 
among  w^hich  we  must  place  the  learning  and 
refinement  of  Greece  and  Eome,  which  again 
were  influenced  by  still  older  and  eastern  states 
of  society.  We  get  only  glimpses  of  the  order 
of  the  geological  epochs,  and  of  the  very  complex 
march  of  historical  events,  and  there  is  quite  as 
much  need  of  restraint  as  of  encouragement 
being  bestowed  on  the  rash  theories  which  are 
being  promulgated  to  account  for  the  whole 
process.    But  we  see  enough  to  convince  us  that 


TILE  S  UFERNA  TVRAL. 


LSI 


tliere  is  a  pre-ordained  geological,  and,  we  may 
add,  social  plan,  in  which  the  present  has  a 
relation  to  the  past,  and  proceeds  out  of  it 
according  to  the  arrangements  of  an  all-wise 
counsel. 

Thirdly,  natural  agencies  produce  a  succession 
of  results  in  which  there  is  progress.  For  there 
is  certainly  a  law  of  progression,  and  of  develop- 
ment too,  in  the  mundane  system.  Speculators, 
indeed,  have  often  misinterpreted  and  perverted 
it,  some  setting  aside  all  Divine  agency  in  favour 
of  mere  physical  causation,  and  others  admitting 
God  only  pantheistically,  as  acting  in  nature  hut 
not  ahove  it.  Still  there  has  heen,  and  there 
evidently  still  is,  an  advancement  from  the  lower 
to  the  higher,  and  the  springing  of  a  farther 
stage  from  a  simpler  state  of  things.  Geology 
shews  an  advance,  from  seaweeds  up  to  the 
plants  yielding  the  richest  fruits  and  to  the 
trees  of  the  forest,  and  from  zoophytes  up  to 
quadrupeds  and  to  man.  In  our  own  epoch  the 
discoveries  of  science  and  the  inventions  of  art 
are  new  powers  added  to  help  on  the  advance- 
ment of  the  race ;  and  they  make  the  ground 
yield  a  larger  produce ;  and  they  give  to  human 
beings  a  greater  power  over  the  elements ;  and 
tliey  increase  the  number  of  rational  creatures  in 
proportion  to  the  irrational ;  and  they  provide  a 
better   sustenance  for  mans  wants;    and  they 


182 


THE  SYSTEM  IX 


lessen  disease  and  prolong  life ;  and  they  help 
on  our  advancement  in  knowledge  and  refine- 
ment. All  this  is  evidently  predetermined  by 
God,  for  it  is  palpably  the  result  of  agencies 
which  he  has  instituted. 

Fourthly,  there  is  a  still  more  peculiar  ele- 
ment in  the  typical  system  of  nature — the  earlier 
is  a  sort  of  prefiguration  of  the  later.  The  seed 
contains  what  is  to  become  the  full-grown  plant. 
The  embryo  has  already  what  is  to  expand  into 
the  full-grown  animal.  The  earlier  geological 
ages  shew  rude  types,  with  capacities  which  be- 
come developed  only  in  the  more  finished  forms 
of  later  vegetable  and  animal  life. 

The  language  of  our  two  greatest  living  natu- 
ralists cannot  be  too  frequently  quoted  as  to  the 
prophetic  plan  of  nature.  "  It  is  evident,"  says 
Agassiz,"  "  that  there  is  a  manifest  j)rogress  in 
the  succession  of  beings  on  the  surface  of  the 
earth.  This  progress  consists  in  an  increasing 
similarity  to  the  living  fauna,  and  among  the 
vertebrata  especially  in  their  increasing  resem- 
blance to  man.  But  this  connexion  is  not  the 
consequence  of  a  direct  lineage  between  the 
faunas  of  different  ages.  There  is  nothing  hke 
parental  descent  connecting  them.  The  fishes  of 
the  Palaeozoic  age  are  in  no  respect  the  ancestors 
of  the  reptiles  of  the  secondary  age,  nor  does 

*  Agassiz  and  Gould's  Comparative  Physiology,  p.  147. 


TEE  S  UFERXA  TUllA  L.  1 S  3 

^liin  descend  from  the  mammals  wliicli  preceded 
him  in  the  tertiary  age.  The  hnk  hy  which  they 
are  connected  is  of  a  higher  and  immaterial  na- 
tm*e ;  and  their  connexion  is  to  he  sought  in  the 
view  of  the  Creator  Himself,  whose  aim  in  form- 
ing the  earth,  in  allowing  it  to  undergo  the 
successive  changes  which  geology  has  pointed 
out,  and  in  creating  successively  all  the  different 
types  of  animals  which  have  passed  away,  w^as  to 
introduce  man  upon  its  surface.  Man  is  the  end 
towards  wdiich  all  the  animal  creation  has  tended 
from  the  first  appearance  of  the  first  Paleozoic 
fishes."  The  language  of  Ow^en  is  equally  ex- 
plicit''' : — "  The  recognition  of  an  ideal  exem- 
plar in  the  vertehrated  animals  proves  that 
the  knowledge  of  such  a  being  as  man  must 
have  existed  before  man  appeared;  for  the  Di- 
vine Mind  wdiich  planned  the  archetype  also 
foreknew  all  its  modifications.  The  archetype 
idea  w^as  manifested  in  the  fiesh  long  prior  to 
the  existence  of  those  animal  species  that  ac- 
tually exemplify  it.  To  wdiat  natural  laws  or 
secondary  causes  the  orderly  succession  and  pro- 
gression of  such  organic  phenomena  may  have 
been  committed,  we  are  as  yet  ignorant.  But  if, 
without  derogation  of  the  Divine  power,  we  may 
conceive  of  the  existence  of  such  ministers,  and 
personify  them  by  the  term  '  Nature,'  we  learn 

*  On  Limbs,  p.  86. 


184 


THE  SYSTEM  IN 


from  the  past  histoiy  of  our  globe  that  she  has 
advanced  with  slow  and  stately  steps,  guided  by 
the  archetypal  light  amidst  the  wreck  of  worlds, 
from  the  first  embodiment  of  the  vertebrate  idea 
under  its  old  ichthyic  vestment,  until  it  became 
arrayed  in  the  glorious  garb  of  the  human  form." 

Let  us  inquire  w^hether  there  may  not  be  some- 
thing analogous  to  all  this  in  the  dispensations 
of  grace. 

I.  There  is  an  order  and  a  method  in  the 
supernatural  dispensations  of  God.  In  nature 
there  is  a  uniformity  of  composition  and  structure, 
and  a  unity  of  aspect,  which  enable  the  experi- 
enced eye  to  distinguish  at  once  between' the 
works  of  God  and  the  w^orks  of  man,  betw^een  the 
actual  phenomena  of  the  world  and  the  creations 
of  human  phantasy.  There  is  a  like  unity  in 
the  revelations  of  God.  From  the  beginning, 
they  appear  as  an  announced  provision  for 
saving  a  people  from  the  effects  of  the  fall, 
through  a  Deliverer  sent  from  heaven,  but  taber- 
nacling on  the  earth.  This  idea,  without  being 
fully  unfolded,  runs  through  all  the  dispensations 
of  the  Old  Testament,  is  embodied  fully  in  the 
work  and  death  of  Jesus,  and  is  declared  cate- 
gorically by  the  apostles  in  their  epistles.  This 
gives  a  unity  to  the  doctrine — it  all  hangs  on 
the  circumstance  that  God  has  provided  a  ransom 
for  sinful  man  ;    a  unity  to  the  events  of  provi- 


THE  SUPERNATURAL. 


185 


dence — to  the  deliverances,  for  example,  wrought 
for  God's  people  in  successive  ages  ;  a  unity  to 
the  ordinances  and  worship, — they  invite  us  as 
sinners  to  approach  God,  propitiated  by  an 
atonement ;  a  unity  to  the  very  characters  set 
before  us  for*  contemplation, — they  are  all  justi- 
fied by  free  grace,  and  they  walk  by  faith, 
and  are  seeking  to  become  holy. 

II.  One  dispensation  rises  out  of  another.  In 
geology  there  are  mineral,  but  more  especially 
fossil  characteristics,  which  enable  us  to  group 
the  strata  into  systems.'  If  we  compare  the  older 
with  the  later,  we  find  them  difi'ering  very  widely 
from  each  other — thus  we  seek  in  vain  below  the 
Tertiary  Formation  for  any  species  of  animal 
now  living.  But  on  the  other  hand,  we  discover 
a  unity  of  type  running  through  the  whole  series, 
and  if  we  compare  the  immediately  successive 
formations,  the  differences  do  not  appear  so 
great,  and  farther  research  is  tending  to  fill  up 
the  breaks.  There  are,  in  like  manner,  systems 
or  economies  in  the  supernatural  dispensations, 
as  revealed  in  the  Word,  such  as  the  antedilu- 
vian, the  patriarchal,  the  jMosaic,  the  prophetical, 
consummating  in  the  Christian.  There  is,  no 
doubt,  a  vast  difference  between  the  light  enjoyed 
by  us  in  Christian  times,  and  that  vouchsafed  to 
the  patriarchs,  indeed,  to  any  who  lived  before 
Christ — "  he  that  is   least   in  the  kingdom  of 


186  TEE  SYSTEM  IN 

heaven"  is  greater  than  the  most  privileged  of 
those  who  hved  in  these  early  times.  In  the 
palaeozoic  times,  if  we  may  so  call  them,  patri- 
arch and  prophet  have  an  antique  aspect,  and  a 
stiff  and  rigid  shape,  compared  with  the  more 
flexible  forms  of  life  in  Christian  times;  but  there 
runs  a  unity  of  type  through  the  whole  doctrine 
and  all  the  characters,  and  the  one  system  ever 
slides  into  the  other.  We  can  see  that  -the 
Christian  dispensation,  though  an  advance,  grew 
out  of  the  Jewish,  and  how  the  Jewish  sprang 
from  an  older  economy. 

III.  There  has  been  progress  in  the  religious 
systems.  In  geology  there  have  been  fanciful, 
and  false,  and  atheistic  theories  of  development ; 
but  there  is,  after  all,  a  true  doctrine,  and  this 
whether  men  have  or  have  not  been  able  to  seize 
it.  With  not  a  few  partial  breaks  and  anomalies, 
there  has  been  an  advance  from  the  lower  vege- 
table and  animal  to  the  higher ;  and  also  an 
advance  from  the  more  general  and  rude  to  the 
more  specific  and  adapted ;  from  a  loose  life 
spread  over  the  organism  to  a  more  localized  and 
intense  life  ;  from  organs  suited  imperfectly  to 
many  purposes,  to  organs  fitted  admirably  for 
more  special  ends  ;  from  rude  instruments  of 
defence  and  attack,  to  a  more  refined  apparatus 
for  preservation ;  from  vague  to  more  peculiar 
instincts  ;  from  instincts  which  go  on  blindly  to 


THE  SUPERNATURAL. 


187 


a  purpose,  to  instincts  which  can  vary  the  action 
to  suit  the  circumstances,  and  on  to  rudimentary 
reason.  There  is  a  parallel  advance  in  rehgious 
knowledge  and  spirituality  in  the  reign  of  God, 
as  a  system  introduced  into  our  world.  It  is 
the  same  God  that  is  revealed  in  the  Book  of 
Genesis,  in  the  Book  of  Isaiah,  and  in  the 
Epistles ;  hut  surely  he  is  more  fully  disclosed 
in  the  last  of  these  than  in  the  two  previous, 
and  in  the  second  than  in  the  first.  It  is  the 
same  method  of  reconciliation  made  known  to 
fallen  man  in  the  sacrifices  of  Ahel,  of  Noah,  of 
Ahraham,  and  of  the  Levitical  institutions  ;  and 
a^ain  in  the  life  and  death  of  Christ,  and  the 
commentary  on  the  whole,  which  we  have  in  the 
Epistle  to  the  Hehrews ;  hut  in  the  former  the 
figure  is  veiled,  and  we  see  only  the  general 
form,  whereas  in  the  latter  it  is  fully  unfolded  to 
our  view ;  in  the  former  it  is  seen  in  the  dawn 
ere  the  sun  rises,  in  the  latter  under  the  light 
of  day.  The  morals  of  the  Old  Testament  and 
the  New  are  fundamentally  the  same ;  hut  in 
the  former  they  take  a  more  prohibitory  and 
minutely  technical  shape  than  they  do  in  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount,  where  our  attention  is 
called  not  so  much  to  tlie  form  as  to  the  spirit 
which  animates  it.  There  was  an  advance  in 
the  knowledge  of  the  disciples,  from  the  time  of 
their  early  pupilship,  when  they  shewed  such 


188 


THE  SYSTEM  IN 


ignorance,  and  fell  into  such  blunders,  down  to 
the  time  when  they  w^ere  guided  unto  all  truth 
by  the  Spirit.  It  may  even  be  admitted,  under 
certain  restrictions,  that  there  is  development  in 
the  Christian  Church.  There  is,  indeed,  no 
addition  to  the  truth  revealed,  no  change  in  the 
rule  of  faith  and  morals.  But  surely  w^e  who 
dwell  in  these  later  times,  with  all  the  lights 
kindled  by  those  who  have  gone  before,  and 
specially  with  the  beacon  lights  kindled  on  the 
rocks  on  which  many  have  been  shipwrecked, 
are  in  better  circumstances  to  appreciate  the  full 
spirit  of  the  Word ;  and  it  is  certain  that  the 
knowledge  of  Divine  truth  is  every  year  covering 
a  larger  portion  of  the  earth's  surface. 

IV.  There  are  prefigurations  in  the  super- 
natural dispensations.  In  particular,  there  are 
events,  institutions,  and  persons  that  look  for- 
ward to  Christ  and  to  Christ's  day.  These  con- 
stitute what  is  usually  called  Scripture  types  by 
theologians.  But  the  typical  system,  of  the  Word 
of  God  is  of  a  vastly  more  comprehensive  cha- 
racter than  divines  have  conceived  it  to  be.  In 
order  to  determine  its  precise  nature,  and  to 
illustrate  the  whole  subject,  it  will  be  needful  to 
inquire  somewhat  minutely  into  the  meaning  of 
the  phrases  by  which  this  peculiarity  of  the 
Divine  dispensations  is  set  forth  by  the  writers 
of  the  New  Testament. 


THE  SUPERNATUPxAL.  189 

In  the  Word  of  God  the  plimse  ''  type"  and 

analogous     words      (r-jTrog,    {j^KOTh-ir^^aig^    Mp(pri^    iM6p(p(^(Sig, 

bih/fia,  i/xoag/7/Aa,  and  derivations,  such  as  buyiMari^ca 
'Trapadsr/ojum^u)  are  used  to  oxpress  a  very  deep 
idea  running  through  the  whole  Divine  economy 
resemhhng  the  "idea"  {Idea  and  Ag)  and  the 
"pattern"  (cra/?aai/i/&/a)  of  Plato,  the  "form"  of 
Aristotle  {s'Idog),  borrowed  from  him  by  the  school- 
men, by  Bacon,  by  Kant,  and  logicians  generally, 
the  "  law"  of  modern  physical  science,  and  the 
"  type"  of  natural  history.  This  meaning  has 
been  very  much  lost  sight  of  by  divines,  in  con- 
sequence of  their  constructing  a  system  of  theo- 
logical (so  they  avow)  instead  of  a  system  of 
Scriptural  types.  The  words  I  refer  to  signify 
literally  a  form,  likeness,  specimen,  or  image. 
They  are  employed  in  Scripture  to  set  forth  a 
great  truth,  which  has  seldom  been  seized  in  all 
its  width  or  in  all  its  particularity.  They  denote 
that,  in  the  spiritual  economy  of  God,  things  are 
fashioned  after  a  pattern,  just  as  the  natural 
sciences  have  shewn  that  there  are  types  or 
model  forms  all  throughout  the  works  of  God. 

Taking  the  word  type  (ru'^og)  and  its  com- 
pounds, we  tind  it  used  in  its  literal  sense,  as 
when  the  Apostle  Thomas  declares,  "  unless  I 
shall  see  in  his  hands  the  type  of  the  nails,  and 
thrust  my  hand  into  his  side,  I  will  not  believe" 
(John  XX.  25).     The  children  of  Israel  are  repre- 


190  THE  SYSTEM  IN 

sented  as  taking  up  in  the  wilderness  "  types  or 
images  of  Moloch  and  llemphan,  gods  whom  they 
worshipped"  (Acts  vii.  43).  Becoming  somewhat 
more  metaphorical,  Claudius  Lysias  is  spoken  of 
as  writing  a  letter  after  the  "  type"  or  manner  that 
follows  (Acts  xxiii.  25).  Moses  is  commanded  to 
make  the  tabernacle  of  witness  *'  according  to  the 
type  that  he  had  seen"  (Acts  vii.  44).  Paul  tells 
us  that  Moses,  when  he  was  about  to  make  the 
tabernacle,  was  commanded  to  make  "  all  things 
according  to  the  type  shewed"  him  in  the  mount. 
(Heb.  viii.  5.)  Turning  to  the  passage  in  Exo- 
dus, we  find  that  the  word  used  is  "  tehegit,'' 
meaning  form  or  exemplar,  and  it  is  translated 
in  the  Alexandrian  version  'paracleigm  {'irapdhr/ij.a), 
the  very  word  so  often  employed  by  Plato.  Paul 
represents  the  first  man  as  a  "  type  of  him  that 
was  to  come"  (Rom.  v.  14).  The  same  Apostle 
speaks  of  behevers  everywhere,  as  being  examples 
or  types  to  others.  Thus  the  Thessalonians  are 
described  as  "  types  to  all  that  believe  in  Mace- 
donia and  Achaia"  (1  Thess.  i.  7).  He  exhorts 
the  Philippians,  "  be  followers  together  of  me, 
and  mark  them  which  walk  so  as  ye  have  us  for 
a  type"  (Phil.  iii.  17).  He  speaks  of  himself  as 
working  with  labour  and  travail  night  and  day, 
that  he  might  not  be  chargeable  to  any,  in  order 
to  "  make  ourselves  a  type  to  you  to  copy" 
(2  Thess.  iii.  S).      Jesus  Christ  is  represented 


THE  S UPEENA TURAL.  101 

as  shewing  forth  in  Paul,  "  nil  long-suffering  for 
an  under- type  (ucroTj%&)(r;j)  to  them  which  should 
hereafter  helieve  on  Him  to  life  everlasting" 
(1  Tim.  i.  16).  Peter  exhorts  elders  to  he  "  types 
to  the  flock,"  and  points  to  the  chief  Shepherd 
as  ahout  to  give  the  reward  when  he  comes 
(1  Pet.  V.  9).  There  are  said  to  he  types  not  only 
of  persons  and  of  character,  hut  of  doctrine. 
The  Roman  helievers  are  spoken  of  as  "  having 
oheyed  from  the  heart  that  type  of  doctrine 
which  was  delivered"  them  (Rom.  vi.  17),  and 
Timothy  is  exhorted  to  "  hold  fast  the  undertype 
(■l-z6-vxu6ig)  of  sound  words  wdiich  he  had  heard 
of  Paul  (1  Tim.  i.  13).  There  are  said,  too, 
to  be  types  in  the  administration  of  God  in 
punishing  the  wicked,  as  when  he  overwhelmed 
those  that  sinned  in  the  wilderness.  "  These 
things  w^ere  our  types,  that  w^e  should  not  lust 
after  evil  things  as  they  also  lusted,"  and  the 
Apostle  adds  :  "  All  these  things  happened  unto 
them  for  types,  and  they  are  written  for  our 
admonition,  upon  w^hom  the  ends  of  the  ages  are 
come"  (1  Cor.  x.  (5,  11). 

Other  phrases  are  employed  to  present  the 
same  general  truths.  Thus  Sodom  and  Go- 
morrha,  and  the  cities  ahout  them,  are  *'  set  forth 
as  a  sample  {hTyiia)^  suffering  the  vengeance  of 
eternal  fire"  (Jude,  verse  7).  It  is  said  of  Christ 
that  having  hy  liis  cross  "  spoiled  principalities 


192  THE  SYSTEM  IN 

and  powers  he  made  a  sample  of  tliem  (sdny/xaTiffsv), 
openly  triumphing  over  them  in  it"  (Col.  ii.  15). 
Paul  says  of  the  priests  that  offer  gifts  according 
to  the  law  that  they  serve  "  unto  the  exemplar 
{h'Trohiyiia)^  and  shadow  of  heavenly  things,  as 
Moses  was  admonished  of  God  when  he  was 
about  to  make  the  tabernacle,  for  see,  saitli  he, 
that  thou  make  all  things  according  to  the  type 
shewed  thee  in  the  mount"  (Heb.  viii.  5).  The 
same  apostle,  speaking  of  those  who  rebelled  in 
the  wilderness,  exhorts  us  to  labour  to  enter  unto 
rest,  "  lest  any  man  fall  after  the  same  example 
{I'jrohiiyfia)  of  unbelief"  (iii.  11).  Using  the  same 
word,  Peter  speaks  of  the  overthrow  of  Sodom 
and  Gomorrha  as  "  an  ensample  unto  those  that 
after  should  live  ungodly"  (2  Pet.  ii.  6).  James 
employs  the  same  phrase  when  he  exhorts  us  to 
take  "  the  prophets  who  have  spoken  in  the 
name  of  the  Lord  for  an  example  of  suffering 
affliction,  and  of  patience"  (v.  10) ;  and  our  Lord 
says,  "  I  have  given  you  as  an  example  that  ye 
should  do  as  I  have  done  to  you"  (John  xvii.  15). 
Man  is  everywhere  represented  as  made  after 
the  likeness  of  God  (xa^'  oiJ.oio)Civ  dsov,  James  iii.  9). 
Jesus  Christ  is  represented  as  being  made  in  the 
likeness  (o^o/w/Aa)  of  men  (Phil.  ii.  7),  and  as  being 
sent  in  the  likeness  of  sinful  flesh  (Rom.  viii.  3). 
The  Apostle  Paul  often  brings  out  the  analogy 
between  Christ's  crucifixion  and  death  and  his 


THE  SUPERNATURAL.  193 

people  being  crucified  and  dying  unto  sin,  and 
between  his  resurrection  and  continued  life  and 
tlieir  conversion  and  spiritual  life.  In  particu- 
lar, "  If  we  have  been  planted  together  in  the 
likeness  {o/^otM,u.a)  of  his  death,  we  shall  be  also  in 
the  likeness  of  his  resurrection"  (Rom.  vi.  5). 

Christ  Jesus  is  represented  as  being  "  in  the 
form  {fj^op<pn)  of  God,"  and  as  "  taking  upon  him 
the  form  of  a  servant,"  and  "  made  in  the  like- 
ness of  man,"  and  "  being  found  in  fashion 
(ffX^/^ari)  as  a  man"  (Phil.  ii.  5).  Paul  addresses 
the  Galatians  as  his  little  children,  of  whom  he 
travails  in  birth  again,  "  until  Christ  be  formed 
or  figured"  {,a.op^codfi)  in  them  (Gal.  iv.  19). 

Jesus  is  said  to  be  "  the  image  (s/xwi/)  of  the 
invisible  God"  (Cob  i.  15),  and  to  be  the  "bright- 
ness of  his  glory,  and  the  very  figure  (xo^pocTcrrip)  of 
his  person"  (Heb.  i.  3).  Those  whom  God  fore- 
knew "  he  predestinated  to  be  conformed  to  the 
image  (sIxm)  of  his  son,  that  he  might  be  the 
first-born  among  many  brethren"  (Rom.  viii.  29). 
Paul,  speaking  of  believers,  says,  "  we  all  with 
open  face  beholding,  as  in  a  glass,  the  glory  of 
the  Lord,  are  transformed  into  the  same  image 
(ttiv  avTYiv  i/Kom  fMra/j.op:po-j/j,sDa),  from  glory  to  glory,  as 
by  the  Lord  the  Spirit"  (2  Cor.  iii.  18).  Again, 
"  As  we  have  borne  the  image  of  the  earthy,  we 
shall  also  bear  the  image  of  the  heavenly"  (1  Cor. 
XV.  49). 

N 


194  TEE  SYSTEM  IK 

The  New  Testament  represents  the  prefigura- 
tive  system  of  the  Old  Testament  as  the  shadow 
((r;c/a)  of  a  coming  substance.  Paul  speaks  of  the 
Old  Testament  ordinances  as  a  "  shadow  of  good 
thmgs  to  come,  but  the  body  is  of  Christ"  (Col. 
ii.  17).  The  priests  under  the  law  are  described 
as  serving  "  unto  the  example  and  shadow  of 
heavenly  things,"  that  is,  of  Gospel  things  (Heb. 
viii.  5).  There  is  a  distinction  drawn  between 
the  shadow  and  the  image  (s/xwi/),  for  the  law  is 
the  ^'  shadow,"  and  not  the  "  very  image"  of  the 
things  (Heb.  x.  1). 

I  have  placed  these  passages  together,  that  we 
may  have  before  us  at  once  a  full  view  of  the 
typical  doctrine  of  the  word  of  God,  of  which 
Divines,  from  neglecting  to  look  at  the  mean- 
ing of  the  words,  have  formed  very  imperfect 
notions.  There  is  more  here  than  the  prehgura- 
tions  of  which  so  much  is  made  by  theologians, 
who,  in  overlooking  the  fundamental  truths,  have 
missed  the  ground  on  which  the  real  prefigura- 
tive  system  of  the  Word  of  God  proceeds. 
According  to  the  Scripture  account  there  are, 
first,  model  or  pattern  forms,  which  are  always  to 
be  traced  up  in  the  last  resort  to  God  himself,  to 
perfections  of  his,  or  devices  of  his  wisdom.  We 
have  such  in  man  as  he  came  forth  in  the  image 
of  God  ;  we  have  such  in  the  laws  of  his  retribu- 
tive justice  in  punishing  the  wicked ;  we  have 


TEE  SUPERNATURAL. 


195 


such  in  the  great  deliverances  wrought  for  the 
Church ;  and  we  have  them,  above  all,  in  Jesus 
Christ,  in  his  person,  and  in  his  work.  Secondly, 
there  are  objects  or  events  constructed  after 
these  patterns,  by  a  set  of  agencies  natural  or 
supernatural,  and  they  run  on  in  a  series  ever 
repeated,  like  a  family  likeness  going  down  from 
one  generation  to  another.  From  these  two  cir- 
cumstances there  springs  a  third — that  there  are, 
what  I  would  call  not  types  generally,  but  what 
I  would  call  prefigurations  or  prefigurative  types, 
that  is,  events  and  institutions  pointing  forward 
to  others  to  come,  in  the  case  of  the  prefigura- 
tions of  Christ  to  a  great  Archetype  (not  anti- 
type'-')  in  whom  all  the  features  of  the  model 
meet.  We  may  always  discover  some  one,  and, 
at  times,  all  of  these  in  the  types  of  Scripture. 

1.  There  are  in  the  revealed  dispensations  of 
God  t}Yical  events,  that  is,  events  after  a  common 
and  pre-ordained  type.  These  relate  generally  to 
evil  incurred,  to  a  deliverer  raised  up,  and  a  de- 
liverance effected.  '  There  is  a  flood  from  which 
some  are  saved,  by  an  ark  built  by  one  instructed 
for  this  purpose.  There  is  a  national  bondage 
from  which  the  people  are  rescued  by  a  leader 
chosen  and  trahied,  and  are  at  last  conducted  into 

*  Great  confusion  has  been  introduced  into  the  whole  subject  of 
typology,  by  its  being  supposed  necessary  to  discover  an  antiti/ps 
opposed  to  every  type. 


196 


THE  SYSTEM  IX 


a  rest  prepared.  There  is  a  long  series  of  con- 
quests by,  and  subjections  to,  neighbouring 
tribes,  and  then  hberty  achieved  by  a  person 
stirred  up  to  drive  back  the  invaders.  There  is 
a  captivity,  and  at  a  predicted  time  a  rescue  and 
a  return.  All  these  great  providential  events  had 
lessons  for  the  times  in  which  they  occurred,  and 
they  have  lessons  for  all  times.  They  left  deep 
impressions  on  the  minds  of  the  whole  Hebrew 
nation,  and  they  have  created  and  fostered  a  set 
of  far-ranging  ideas,  wdiich  have  been  handed 
down  from  generation  to  generation,  by  the  re- 
cord of  the  events.  They  still  supply  images, 
far  more  vivid  and  far  more  powerful  than  words, 
by  which  to  think  of  great  spiritual  truths.  We 
think  of  sin  as  a  subjection,  a  slavery,  a  captivity, 
and  of  Christ  as  a  deliverer,  and  his  work  as  a 
deliverance. 

2.  There  are  typical  ordinances,  that  is,  ordi- 
nances after  a  pattern,  and  pointing  as  signs  to 
spiritual  truths.  There  were,  from  the  very  in- 
troduction of  sin,  appointed  offerings  which  were 
presented,  no  doubt,  partly  as  thanksgivings  for 
mercies  and  acknowledgments  of  dependence, 
but  were  specially  sacrifices  of  animals  in  which 
sin  was  confessed,  and  suffering  acknowdedged  to 
be  deserved,  and  faith  expressed  in  a  substitute. 
The  worshipper  never  drew  near  to  God,  except 
through  a  mediating  priest,  and  had  to  profess 


TEE  S UPERNA TURAL.  197 

un^YO^tlliness  whenever  he  came  to  ask  hlessings. 
In  the  Levitical  institntions  there  we?*e  never- 
ceasing  ablutions,  pointing  to  defilement  con- 
tracted, and  to  the  need  of  washing,  and  almost 
all  things  were  purged  by  blood,  shewing  that  it 
was  by  suffering  and  death  that  acceptance  was 
to  be  secured,  and  sanctification  effected.  To 
let  him  know  how  it  was  that  his  prayers  were  to 
be  accepted,  the  worshipper  was  to  pray  with  his 
face  towards  the  tabernacle  or  temple,  and  at 
tlie  hour,  morning  and  evening,  when  the  lamb 
was  being  offered  in  sacrifice.  When  the  people 
prayed  without,  the  priest  presented  incense 
within  the  sanctuary,  kindled  by  fire  from  off  the 
altar  on  which  the  animal  had  been  offered,  to 
shew  that  there  w^as  need  of  a  work  to  be  trans- 
acted with  God,  proceeding  on  the  sacrifice 
which  had  been  offered.  The  grossly  carnal,  no 
doubt,  did  not  discern  the  meaning  of  all  this, 
and  rested  in  the  form  without  feeling  the 
breathing  spirit,  and  many,  even  of  the  spiritu- 
ally-minded worshippers,  may  not  have  been  able 
to  expound  the  truth  theoretically  or  doctrinally 
as  we  can  do.  But  the  ordinances  left  their  im- 
pressions on  the  minds  of  the  devout,  and  these 
the  very  impressions  produced  by  the  exposi- 
tor}^ statements  of  the  New  Testament.  The 
rationale  of  the  instruction  was  not  explained  at 
these  times,  when  the  church  was  under  tutors 


198 


TEE  SYSTEM  IN 


and  governors,  but  the  training  did  not  the  less 
bear  its  fruits.  These  were  the  objective  means, 
— and  I  beheve  we  can  conceive  of  no  better, — 
by  which  a  series  of  subjective  ideas,  having  a 
deep  place  in  our  deepest  nature,  were  evoked 
into  consciousness,  and  developed  into  proper 
form,  and  2:)ropagated  from  soul  to  soul,  and 
handed  down  in  ever  increasing  precision  from 
one  age  to  another.  He  who  would  take  away 
these  truths  from  the  Old  Testament,  would  be 
tearing  out  the  very  vital  organs  which  make 
the  body  to  live,  and  breathe,  and  move. 

3.  There  are  typical  men,  that  is,  persons 
moulded  on  a  pattern,  and  pointing  to  a  chief 
pattern.  This  is  a  doctrine  which  may  be  so 
stated  by  friends  or  foes,  as  to  make  it  look  ludi- 
crous. Yet  it  is  not  so  unreasonable  when  it  is 
properly  apprehended.  Natural  causes  operated, 
always  under  a  providential  arrangement,  and 
along  with  spiritual  and  divine  influences,  to 
produce  the  mode  of  action  and  style  of  charac- 
ter which  were  thus  representative.  The  events 
ordained  by  God,  and  among  which  his  people 
lived,  the  manner  in  which  they  were  taught  by 
the  ordinances  to  view  and  to  worship  God,  and 
the  whole  experience  through  which  they  passed, 
must,  of  themselves,  have  fashioned  a  type  of 
manner  and  spirit  and  conduct,  quite  as  natu- 
rally as  physical  causes,   and  social  and  moral 


THE  SUPEEKATURAL.  199 

influences,  fashioned  the  Jewish  make  and  fea- 
tures. By  agencies  natural  and  supernatural 
there  were  moulded  a  series  of  men  such  as 
Noah,  and  Ahraham,  and  Moses,  and  Daniel,  after 
the  model  set  hefore  them,  and  bearing  the 
image  of  the  Coming  One,  to  whom  they  looked, 
— it  should  he  added,  always  in  an  imperfect, 
and  often  in  a  mutilated  manner. 

Thus  understood,  there  is  really  nothing  un- 
reasonable in  the  idea  of  their  being  typical 
men,  formed  after  the  pattern  copied  by  them, 
and  so  far  exhibiting  that  pattern.  No  doubt  it 
is  a  doctrine  wdiich  may  be  made  ridiculous, 
when  fancy  is  allowed  to  run  riot  unrestrained 
by  judgment,  and  resemblances  are  dwelt  on 
which  are  mere  coincidences,  or  which  are 
created  by  the  eye  that  is  looking  for  them.  It 
is  wisest,  and  in  every  way  best,  in  tracing  the 
analogy  between  type  and  archetype,  to  keep 
to  the  general  features  which  strike  all,  and 
strike  at  once,  instead  of  going  down  into  nume- 
rous and  petty  details.  And  in  looking  to  the 
types  \ve  must  never  admire  nor  imitate  the 
picture,  excepting  in  so  far  as  it  has  been  faith- 
ful to  the  Great  Original,  on  whom,  and  not  on 
the  mere  copies,  our  eyes  should  mainly  rest. 
If  only  we  are  guided  by  a  constant  respect  for 
the  Divine  Word,  and  guarded  by  ordinary 
sense,  it  will  be  interesting,  and  may  be  profit- 


200  THE  SYSTEM  IN 

able,  to  contemplate  certain  of  the  excellencies 
of  Jesus  reflected  from  those  who  looked  forward 
to  him  and  to  his  day. 

The  type  often  runs  on  from  the  Old  Testa- 
ment into  tlie  New,  and  from  the  church  on 
earth  into  the  church  in  heaven.  There  Avas 
the  rest  of  the  Sabbath  in  Eden;  there  was  the 
rest  in  Canaan  after  the  wanderings  of  the  wil- 
derness ;  and  the  Psalmist  points  on  to  a  rest  not 
yet  realized  (Ps.  xcv.  11);  from  wdiich  the  Apos- 
tle ai'gues,  as  Jesus,  i.e.,  Joshua,  had  not  given 
rest,  that  "  there  remain eth  a  rest  to  the  people 
of  God"  (Heb.  iv.  9) ;  wdiich  rest  is,  first,  peace  of 
conscience  in  the  peace-speaking  blood  of  Jesus, 
then  peace  of  heart  in  the  pacifying  power  of 
the  Spirit  of  Jesus,  and  the  whole  a  foretaste 
and  an  earnest  of  the  unending  rest  of  heaven. 
In  this  sense  there  are  types  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment as  w^ell  as  in  the  Old,  Jesus  Christ  being 
the  archetype  in  both — wdth  this  only  difference, 
that  whereas  in  the  latter  the  figures  look  for- 
ward to  Him,  in  the  former  they  look  back  to 
Him,  as  the  grand  central  figure  evidently  the 
head  and  chief,  and  the  source  of  influence  and 
of  interest.  In  particular,  there  is  a  correspon- 
dence or  a  parallelism  between  the  life  of  Christ 
and  the  life  of  his  people.  They  are  associated 
with  him  in  his  very  death, — they  deserve  death, 
and  he  dies  for  them,  and  they  die  in  him ;  by 


THE  SUPERNATURAL. 


201 


his  death  they  are  dehvered  from  the  death 
which  is  the  wages  of  sin,  they  are  crucified  with 
him,  he  dies  for  sin  and  they  die  to  sin.  There 
is  a  still  closer  connexion  hetween  the  life  that 
is  in  him  and  the  life  that  is  in  them  ;  the 
Spirit  which  raised  Jesus  from  the  dead  quickens 
them ;  his  resurrection  is  an  earnest  of  their  re- 
surrection ;  the  life  that  is  in  him  flows  into 
them;  and  hecause  he  lives  they  shall  live  also, — 
having  spiritual  life  in  them  as  an  assurance 
that  they  shall  enjoy  life  with  hini  for  evermore. 
Eminent  helievers,  who  have  drunk  deeply  of  his 
Spirit,  come  thus  to  he  types  of  him ;  they  have 
his  life  in  them,  and  they  copy  his  example,  and 
are  heing  fashioned  after  his  pattern,  and  are 
made  ready  to  join  his  society  in  the  mansions 
of  his  father's  house  in  heaven. 

It  is  the  t}^ical  system  of  nature  which, 
always  with  the  sky  ahove,  is  the  main  means 
of  giving  a  unity  to  nature  in  our  apprehensions. 
Wherever  man  goes  on  the  earth's  surface  he 
finds,  in  the  midst  of  an  infinite  variety,  a  same- 
ness in  the  forms  of  plant  and  animal,  of  man 
and  woman,  which  makes  him  feel  that  he  is 
not  in  another  world — that  the  New  World  is 
only  the  other  half  of  the  Old.  In  like  manner, 
it  is  hy  the  typical  forms  of  the  Word  of  God, 
always  in  connexion  with  the  Archetype, — more 
than  even  hy  the  consistency  of  doctrine, — that 


202  TEE  SYSTEM  iJSr 

there  is  imparted  a  unity  and  a  harmony  to  our 
religion  in  the  ideas  we  entertain  of  it.  Just  as 
wherever  we  travel  we  discover  that  all  mankind 
are  of  "  one  blood,"  with  common  laws  of  intelli- 
gence and  common  appetencies  and  sympathies, 
so  we  are  made  to  feel  that,  with  not  a  few 
individual  and  national  differences,  the  Church 
is  one  in  all  ages  and  countries ;  that  the  New 
Testament  is  only  the  Old  Testament  in  a  more 
advanced  form,  and  that  its  living  members  are 
all  citizens  of  the  same  commonwealth  and 
speak  the  same  tongue.  Separated  as  we  are 
from  them  by  long  ages,  we  can  enter  into  the 
experience  of  Abel  as  he  offered  his  "  excellent 
sacrifice  ;"  of  Abraham,  as  he  walked  by  faith 
and  as  a  pilgrim  ;  of  Moses,  as  he  endured  as 
seeing  him  who  is  invisible ;  of  Paul,  as  he  ever 
met  with  the  "  law  in  his  members  warring 
against  the  law  of  his  mind ;"  and  divided  as  we 
are  from  them  by  wide  oceans,  we  draw  to  our 
hearts,  as  brothers,  the  Christian  of  America, 
the  Christian  of  India,  the  Christian  of  the 
South  Seas,  and  the  Christian  of  Africa.  All 
these  join  us  in  singing  the  Psalms  of  David, 
and  the  spiritual  songs  of  a  host  of  writers  for 
the  last  three  thousand  years,  and,  in  doing  so, 
they  and  we  feel  that  we  have  the  same  trials 
and  the  same  conflicts,  the  same  encouragements 
and  the  same  supports.     The  song  of  Moses  is 


THE  STJFERXATVRAL.  203 

the  same  with  the  song  of  the  Lamb,  and  those 
who  have  learned  to  sing  it  on  earth  will  sing 
it  in  heaven. 

Xor  is  it  to  be  omitted,  that  these  t}^es  give 
a  vividness — like  reality — to  the  Divine  record ; 
we  feel  as  if  we  had  seen  the  persons  and  min- 
gled in  the  scenes  and  taken  part  in  tlie  trans- 
actions— not  of  late  indeed,  but  at  some  far  past 
time  in  our  history ;  and  as  if  in  them  we  had 
laid  up  in  our  memory  a  set  of  photographs, 
which  we  can  carry  with  us  wherever  we  go,  of 
persons  and  of  objects  which  have  interested  us 
supremely.  Not  only  so,  the  types  supply  us 
with  a  series  of  symbols,  which,  better  than  any 
words  or  phrases,  enable  us  to  think  of  great 
spiritual  verities, — they  are  better  images  than 
the  Eomish  Church  supplies  to  its  devotees,  and 
not  liable  to  the  same  objections — they  are  the 
cherubic  figures  of  the  New  Testament  repre- 
senting redemption  and  the  redeemed ;  and  we 
still  and  habitually  conten\plate  Christ's  piacular 
work  under  the  image  of  a  lamb  offered  in 
sacrifice,  and  of  his  saving  power  under  the 
image  of  the  serpent  raised  for  the  healing  of 
the  wounded. 


204 


THE  SYSTEM  IN 


SECT.  III.-TIIE  SYSTEM  OF  PROPHECY. 

A  prophet,  in  the  language  of  Scripture,  is  one 
who  speaks  to  us  in  the  name  of  God.  "  The 
word  of  the  Lord"  comes  to  him,  and  he  is 
authorized  to  anndunce,  "  Thus  saith  the  Lord." 
He  may  have  to  compile  an  authentic  record  of 
facts  in  which  the  interests  of  the  Church  are 
involved,  or  to  reveal  a  new  and  hitherto  un- 
known truth,  or  to  put  forth  an  exliortation, 
or  utter  a  warning,  or  predict  an  occurrence  in 
the  distance. 

There  was  douhtless  a  providence  in  the  rais- 
ing uj)  of  prophets  in  the  Old  Testament  Church. 
They  do  not  appear  at  every  time,  they  come  in 
at  the  appropriate  season  to  discharge  their  bur- 
den. They  are  often  very  visibly  fitted,  by  their 
natural  gifts,  for  the  special  task  they  have  to  ac- 
complish. It  is  so  with  Moses,  both  as  an  actor 
and  as  an  author ;  the  training  through  which  he 
passed  has  given  him  large  experience  of  man- 
kind, and,  along  with  spiritual  influence  from 
above,  has  subdued  the  natural  keenness  of  his 
temper,  and  prepared  him  for  bringing  that  vast 
multitude  out  of  captivity,  and  for  legislating  in 
their  behalf  anfl  bearing  with  their  j) revocations; 
while  his  style  is  suited  at  once  for  narrative 
and  for  the  highest  poetry,  being  usually  simple 


THE  SUPERNATURAL.  205 

and  pure,  but  fitted  to  rise  and  swell  with  the 
grandeur  of  the  theme.  Does  God  wish  to 
secure  fiivour  for  his  people  at  the  courts  of 
princes,  he  raises  up  such  men  as  Joseph,  and 
Daniel,  and  Nehemiah,  in  whom  the  loftiest 
wisdom  was  softened  by  gentleness  and  cour- 
teousness  of  manners.  Does  he  purpose  to 
scourge  wdcked  kings  and  a  degraded  people, 
he  summons  to  the  work  an  Elijah,  whose  em- 
blem was  the  fire  which  he  so  frequently  ^yielded. 
Is  it  his  counsel  to  rouse  a  self-righteous  people 
from  slumbers  which  are  like  unto  death,  he 
raises  up  the  Baptist  as  "  the  voice  of  one  crying 
in  the  wilderness."  As  wdth  their  natural  gifts 
and  character,  so  also  with  the  predilections  .of 
their  age  and  country,  they  are  sanctified  and 
not  destroyed.  There  is,  indeed,  a  higher  and 
supernatural  power  of  inspiration  working  in 
them,  revealing  to  them  what  they  could  not 
otherwise  have  know^n,  imparting  to  them  a 
power  beyond  their  natural  endowments,  and 
protecting  them  from  error  into  which  they 
might  have  fallen.  Still,  the  higher  and  the 
supernatural  docs  not  destroy  the  lower  and  the 
natural — which  supplies  the  wires  along  which 
the  heavenly  power  moves.  The  prophet  is, 
after  all,  a  man  of  his  own  time,  speaking  to  the 
men  of  his  age  in  the  spirit  and  in  the  language 
of  his  country.     What  he  delivers  is  indeed  from 


206  THE  SYSTEM  IN 

God, — he  claims  our  attention  to  it  on  this 
gTound,  and  our  Lord  so  speaks  of  it, — but  it  is 
also  from  himself,  it  comes  out  from  his  own 
mind  and  breast.  The  prophet  can  say,  "  The 
hand  of  the  Lord  was  upon  me,"  "I  was  in  the 
Spirit  and  heard,"  "  The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  came 
upon  me ;"  but  it  can  be  said  quite  as  truly,  "  as 
is  written  in  the  book  of  Esaias  the  prophet," 
"  Then  was  fulfilled  that  was  spoken  by  Jere- 
miah," as  "  speaketh  our  beloved  brother  Paul  in 
all  his  Epistles."  It  is  the  shepherd  boy,  now  a 
king,  who  speaks  with  such  spirit  in  the  Psalms ; 
it  is  the  gatherer  of  sycamore  fruit  who  unrolls 
his  burden  in  Amos ;  it  is  the  Jew,  brought  up  at 
the  feet  of  GamaUel,  but  with  a  dialectic  skill 
called  forth  in  Tarsus,  a  city  of  no  mean  reputa- 
tion for  philosophy,  who  writes  to  the  cities 
which  had  been  stimulated  by  Greek  culture; 
while  it  is  the  Apostle  that  had  leant  on  Jesus' 
bosom,  who  closes  the  Canon  by  alluring  us  to 
dwell  at  once  on  the  object  whom  he  loved  and 
whom  he  would  have  us  to  love,  and  by  opening 
to  us,  through  vision  and  symbol,  glimpses  of 
the  future.  The  breath  of  heaven  plays  down 
upon  ail  instrument  fashioned  on  the  earth. 
How  the  two  were  conjoined,  the  natural  with 
the  supernatural,  I  believe  the  prophets  them- 
selves were  not  able  to  declare, — any  more  than 
we  are  able  to  tell  how  our  souls  are  super- 


THE  SUPERNATUBAL.  207 

induced  upon  our  bodies,  or  how  our  vital  ener- 
gies  work  with  the  mechanism  of  our  frames. 

We  cannot  rise  to  an  intelHgent  comprehen- 
sion of  the  Scriptures  of  the  Old  and  New 
Testaments  unless  we  look  at  both  these  aspects. 
If  we  cjo  not  acknowledge  the  Spirit  of  Inspira- 
tion throughout,  w^e  cannot  know  what  is  truth 
and  what  is  error,  we  have  no  standard  and  no 
ultimate  test.  If  the  reader's  own  spirit  is  made 
the  test,  and  constituted  a  "  verifying  "  faculty, 
this  leaves  him  to  take  what  pleases  and  to 
reject  what  displeases, — to  take  the  doctrine  and 
reject  the  morality,  or  to  accept  the  morality 
and  omit  the  high  truths  on  which  it  is  founded; 
or  to  grasp  at  one  doctrine  and  leave  out  the 
others — say  to  take  the  unity  but  repel  the 
trinity  of  God  ;  or  to  prize  one  set  of  precepts^ — 
say  all  that  relate  to  outward  morality,  and  dis- 
pense with  those  which  enjoin  humility,  repen- 
tance, and  purity  of  heart.  But  while  we  discern 
everywhere  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord,  we  must  be 
wilfully  shutting  our  eyes  if  we  do  not  also 
observe  the  spirit  of  the  prophet,  nay,  the  spirit 
of  his  countiy,  the  spirit  of  his  age,  possibly  the 
spirit  of  his  profession,  and  the  spirit  of  his 
time  of  life.  Every  one  discovers  the  difference 
between  the  mode  of  wTiting  in  the  Psalms  and 
in  the  Proverbs,  in  the  prophecies  of  Isaiah  and 
of  Jeremiah,  in  the  Epistles  of  Paul  and  of  John. 


208 


THE  SYSTEM  IN 


We  see  that  it  is  a  warrior  who  writes  in  many 
of  the  Psahns  ;  a  man  of  rank,  wearied  with  the 
world,  of  its  show  and  its  pleasures,  who  utters 
his  experience  in  the  Book  of  Ecclesiastes  ;  a 
patriot,  overwhelmed  hy  his  country^'s  desolation, 
who  pours  forth  his  sorrows  in  the  Lamentations; 
and  an  active  worker  and  an  active  thinker,  full 
of  a  great  cause  and  engaged  in  a  hard  struggle, 
whose  mind  is  labouring  in  the  Epistles  to  the 
Gentiles.  There  is  evidence  in  every  page  of 
the  New  Testament,  that  it  is  the  Jew  that 
writes  and  not  a  Greek  or  a  Roman.  The  pro- 
phet is  throughout  a  man  of  his  age  and  his 
country ;  and  in  respect  of  astronomy,  and 
chemistry,  and  geology,  and  political  economy, 
and  psychology,  no  way  beyond  his  time, — except 
that  he  is  kept  from  positive  error  in  his  utter- 
ances. Verily,  all  thinking  men  would  be 
made  infidels,  were  they  compelled  to  believe,  in 
spite  of  what  they  see  so  obviously,  that  God 
speaks  in  the  Word  independent  of  the  natural 
agent. 

It  was  by  thus  employing  human  beings  as  his 
messengers,  that  God  secured  that  the  prophets 
spake  to  the  men  of  their  generation  and  their 
nation.  They  found  valuable  records  of  what 
God  had  done  for  his  people,  or  they  got  decla- 
rations from  trustworthy  witnesses  of  memorable 
events,  and  they  proceed  to  draw  them  out  in 


THE  SUPERNATURAL. 


200 


order,  in  their  own  style,  and  to  suit  the  men  of 
their  age,  being  always  guided  in  their  selection 
of'facts,  and  saved  from  errors  on  the  right  side 
and  left,  and  quickened  throughout  by  a  higher 
spirit.  Or  they  felt  keenly  the  evils  prevailing  in 
the  Church  around  them,  their  righteous  souls 
were  vexed  from  day  to  day  by  the  unlawful 
deeds  that  were  committed,  and  they  sighed  and 
cried  for  the  abominations  which  were  done  in 
the  midst  of  them,  and  out  of  the  abundance  of 
the  heart  the  mouth  spake,  and  they  unrolled 
their  complaint  as  a  burden  that  weighed  ter- 
ribly on  their  souls.  Or  they  saw  that  their 
erring  and  smitten  countrymen  needed  encou- 
ragement in  their  disasters,  in  their  slavery,  or 
in  their  banishment,  and  they  rejoiced  to  place 
before  them  the  new  hope  which  God  conde- 
scended to  raise  up  as  a  light  in  the  darkness. 
It  is  most  interesting  to  us  to  observe  the  human 
working  with  the  Divine;  the  human,  as  the 
lower,  being  always  subordinated  to  the  Divine, 
as  the  higher  and  the  authoritative.  It  is 
quickening  to  us  to  feel,  that  when  God  speaks, 
as  he  eveiy  where  does  in  his  Word,  it  is  through 
a  human  and  not  an  angelic  m.essenger,  and  that 
it  is  in  human  speech,  coming  through  the  ope- 
ration of  a  human  understanding,  and  from  off 
a  human  heart,  and  is  thus  received  by  our  ear, 
by  our  understanding,  and  our  heart.     It  is  in- 

0 


210 


TEE  SYSTEM  IN 


structive,  withal,  to  have  the  truth  presented  in 
such  different  hghts,  and  under  such  varied 
aspects,  as  it  is  reflected  from  the  men  and  their 
times  and  their  country ;  and  as  we  examine  it,  to 
discover  the  higher  and  ever  higher  place  allotted 
to  the  moral  and  spiritual,  compared  with  the 
sensible,  the  symbolic,  and  ceremonial,  till  we 
reach  the  brightest  and  purest  revelation  in  the 
person  of  Christ,  and  in  the  doctrines  of  his 
apostles. 

Sometimes  the  instruction  was  uttered  orally, 
and  it  spread  from  one  man  to  another, — as 
intelligence  travels,  often  with  amazing  celerity, 
in  countries  in  which  written  or  printed  com- 
munications are  unknown ;  and  it  was  handed 
down  as  a  precious  legacy  from  one  generation 
to  the  succeeding.  From  the  very  institution 
of  the  Hebrew  commonwealth  at  Sinai  there 
was  a  body  of  Levitical  scribes,  w^hose  ofHce  it 
was  to  give  instruction  to  the  people,  old  and 
young ;  and  from  the  time  of  Samuel,  there 
was  a  special  "  School  of  the  Prophets,"  who 
proclaimed  the  will  of  God  in  a  more  public 
manner.  But  every  one  knows  how  truth 
becomes  corrupted  as  it  passes  thus  traditionally 
to  distant  regions  and  distant  ages ;  and  so  we 
have  from  an  early  date,  from  the  time  of  Moses, 
the  lively  oracles  of  God  committed  to  writing  ; 
and  the  volume,  at  first  small  but  with  most 


THE  S VPERXA  TUBAL.  211 

precious  contents,  gets  additions  at  irregular 
intervals,  till  now  we  have  a  book  as  large  as 
the  common  man  can  well  master,  and  with  a 
body  of  truths  quite  sufficient  to  exercise  the 
deepest  thoughts  of  the  deepest  thinkers.  This 
teaching,  like  everything  else  in  the  natural  and 
spiritual  providence  of  God,  is  progressive,  it  is 
a  seed  springing,  expanding,  and  ripening.  The 
teaching  of  the  early  times  is  for  the  benefit  of 
later  ages.  The  pupils  of  one  age  become  the 
teachers  of  the  next,  and  add  their  own  acquisi- 
tions to  the  stock  of  knowledge  which  had  been 
received  by  them,  and  the  whole  goes  down  the 
stream  of  time  as  a  gathered  and  accumulated 
freight.  Ideas  are  kindled  by  symbols,  and  great 
providential  events,  and  deeds  of  faith  and  self- 
sacrifice,  and  are  passed  like  torches  from  hand  to 
hand.  By  the  "  gifts  and  sacrifices"  under  the 
law,  the  ideas  of  gratitude  and  devotedness  to  God, 
the  ideas  of  sin  and  atonement  sxeve  stirred  uj) 
and  kept  alive.  By  great  historical  occurrences 
— such  as  the  deliverance  from  Egypt  and  the 
restoration  from  the  captivity  of  Babylon,  the 
idea  of  a  salvation  from  the  condemnation  and 
slavery  of  sin  was  raised  up  and  made  to  float 
through  ages,  till  it  was  fully  realized  in  the  life 
and  character  and  work  of  Jesus.  All  this 
revelation,  from  its  commencement  in  Genesis 
to  its  close  in  Bevelation,  has  been  preserved  to 


212 


TEE  SYSTEM  IN 


US  as  the  wisdom  of  divers  ages  and  men  and 
nations,  as  well  as  the  wisdom  of  God,  for  "  holy 
men  spake,  being  borne  or  carried  [oipoij^mi)  of 
the  Holy  Ghost"  (2  Pet.  i.  21).      • 

Such  language  implies  that  the  Scriptures  are, 
throughout,  the  work  and  the  Word  of  God.  It 
is  God  who  speaks  by  his  prophet,  "  Well  spake 
the  Holy  Ghost  by  Esaias  the  prophet"  (Acts 
xxviii.  25).  Paul,  writing  to  a  minister  who  was 
to  expound  it,  says  expressly,  "  All  Scripture  is 
given  by  inspiration  of  God"  (2  Tim.  iii.  16). 
This  language  is  not  to  be  so  stretched  as  to 
imply  that  the  wTiting  of  the  Scriptures  was 
supernatural  throughout,  for  in  that  very  Word 
the  natural,  so  far  as  it  is  not  sinful,  is  described 
as  the  operation  of  God,  as  Elihu  says,  "  There 
is  a  spirit  in  man,  and  the  inspiration  of  the  Al- 
mighty giveth  him  understanding"  (Job  xxxvii.  8). 
But  the  statement  assuredly  carries  with  it  that 
the  Bible  is  free  from  error;  for  error  never 
can  be  the  work  of  God,  or  come  from  the 
inspiration  of  the  Almighty. 

Coming  now  to  that  branch  of  prophecy  which 
is  predictive,  we  find  that  it,  too,  is  of  the  nature 
of  a  system.  It  appears,  like  every  living  thing 
on  the  earth,  at  first  as  a  seed  or  germ,  which  is 
evidently  to  grow  into  a  living  organism  ;  but 
the  wisest  man  cannot  very  well  tell  what  is  to 
be  the  special  form  taken  by  it.     All  that  we 


TEE  S  UPERNA  TURA  L.  213 

can  gather  from  the  first  prediction  is,  that  One 
sprung  from  the  human  race  is  to  appear  and 
to  remedy  the  effects  of  the  fall,  and  crush  the 
very  head  of  the  Arch  Enemy,  while  he  himself 
is  to  suffer  in  the  contest ;  and  that  there  is  to 
be  an  enmity  throughout  the  world's  history 
between  tw^o  manner  of  people,  the  seed  of 
the  w^oman  and  the  seed  of  the  serpent  (Gen. 
iii.  15).  It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  we  have 
transmitted  to  us  every  revelation  which  God 
was  pleased  to  make  to  the  early  Church ;  what 
is  handed  down  may  be  taken  as  specimens  of 
the  remainder.  The  predictions  were  like  the 
lieads  of  families  in  these  times,  who  w^ere  the 
progenitors  of  a  numerous  seed,  to  whom  they 
left  their  name,  their  privileges,  and  their  wide 
possessions.  A  new  germinating  promise  or  pre- 
diction— like  a  new  species  of  plant  or  animal — 
is  deposited  at  every  great  crisis  of  the  Church, 
when  a  new  formation  (to  use  a  geological 
phrase)  is  being  introduced,  or  when  hope  might 
be  extinguished  by  threatening  evils.  It  is 
when  the  traces  of  the  flood  are  yet  upon  the 
earth,  and  the  fear  of  the  recurrence  of  a  similar 
catastrophe  is  oppressing  the  mind,  that  the  as- 
surance is  given  that  waters  shall  never  again 
sweep  aw^ay  the  inhabitants  of  the  w^orld  (Gen. 
ix.  II).  It  is  wdien  the  visible  Church  is  being 
narrowed  into  tlie  one  family  of  Abraham,  that 


214 


THE  SYSTEM  IN 


ill  the  very  foundation  of  the  structure  then 
reared  there  is  deposited  the  truth  that  his  seed 
was  to  he  a  hlessing  to  all  the  nations  of  the 
earth,  who  are  therefore  once  more  to  he  em- 
braced within  the  commonwealth  (Gen.  xxii,  18). 
When  Jacob  is  dying  in  a  strange  land  in 
which  terrible  oppressions  are  about  to  come  on 
his  descendants,  this  hope  is  kept  up  by  his 
assuring  them  of  a  Shiloh  who  was  to  gather  the 
people  to  himself  (xlix.  10).  "When  the  children 
of  Israel  are  constituted  into  a  commonwealth, 
and  are  about  to  be  settled  in  the  land  allotted 
to  them,  a  new  series  of  budding  promises,  with 
far- ranging  warnings  of  judgment,  are  announced^ 
to  them,  with  the  special  assurance  of  a  prophet 
after  the  type  of  Moses,  who  shall  exercise 
authority  and  command  attention  (Deut.  xviii. 
3  5,  18).  In  the  comparatively  settled  state  of 
things  which  succeeded,  it  does  not  appear  that 
the  harp  of  prophecy  uttered  any  new  prediction. 
But  from  the  time  when  the  state  has  reached 
its  highest  worldly  prosperity  under  David,  down 
through  its  declensions,  divisions,  and  scatter- 
ings, till  the  people  once  more  have  a  settlement 
in  their  land,  there  is  a  series  of  predictions  at 
once  comprehensive  and  minute.  In  the  time 
of  their  great  warrior  king  they  relate  specially 
to  a  kingdom  to  be  established  in  the  family  of 
David,  but  of  a  far  higher  character  than  any 


TRE  S  TJPEENA  TTJUAL.  215 

temporal  sovereignty,  there  being  at  tlie  same 
time  intimations  not  a  few,  that  the  throne  is  to 
be  reached  through  suffering  and  blood.  From 
the  time  of  Hosea  and  Amos  in  Israel,  and  of 
Joel  and  Isaiah  in  Judah,  there  are  distinct  an- 
nouncements of  the  dissolution  of  the  existing 
kingdoms  as  a  punishment  of  their  wickedness, 
but  only  that  the  prophets  may  exhibit  in  a 
brighter  light  the  unending  reign  of  peace  that 
was  to  follow.  When  the  Jews  were  led  into 
captivity,  they  carried  their  predictions  with 
them,  and  these  formed  a  bond  of  national  union 
and  a  ground  of  hope,  and  allured  a  body  of 
people  to  return  to  their  land  in  very  discourag- 
ing circumstances ;  and  to  them,  as  they  rebuilt 
their  temple  and  reared  the  walls  of  their  com- 
monwealth, encouragements  were  held  out  by 
Haggai,  Zechariah,  and  Malachi,  sufficient  to 
keep  the  nation  in  a  state  of  waiting  and  expec- 
tation. Again,  there  is  a  period  of  four  centuries 
in  which  there  is  no  new  supernatural  element 
introduced ;  but  as  things  take  their  natural 
course,  a  soil  is  formed  out  of  which  the  Messiah 
comes,  as  "  a  root  out  of  a  dry  ground."  The 
long-expected  One  rises  at  the  appointed  time, 
like  the  sun  upon  the  earth,  but  evidently  not 
from  the  earth.  The  predictive  portion  of  pro- 
phecy thus  forms  a  system,  rising  like  a  river 
from  a  fountain,  and  augmented  at  irregular  dis- 


216 


THE  SYSTEM  IN 


tances  by  stream  after  stream  as  it  moves  on, — 
and  we  may  add,  going  out  (as  we  shall  see 
forthwith)  as  gradually  by  many  mouths.  We 
cannot  understand  prophecy  at  all,  unless  we 
view  it  in  this  its  complex  structure  and  varied 
adaptations,  unless  we  bear  in  mind  in  particular, 
that  the  doctrinal,  the  preceptive,  the  promis- 
sor}%  and  denunciative  parts  are  indissolubly 
interwoven  with  the  predictive  parts,  unless  we 
observe  that  the  utterances  are  brought  out  or 
occasioned  by  contemporaneous  natural  occur- 
rences, and  that  they  had  a  meaning  and  a 
lesson  to  the  generation  of  men  to  whom  they 
were  first  delivered,  and  that  the  prediction  was 
a  gradual  rolling  on  of  threads  of  anticipation, — 
even  as  the  fulfihiient  (as  we  shall  see  imme- 
diately) is  a  gradual  rolling  off  from  age  to  age 
of  a  web  of  accomplishments. 

The  prophet  is  a  man  of  his  time,  and  is  conse- 
quently the  better  able  to  speak  to  the  men  of  his 
time.  It  is  Jacob  speaking  to  his  children,  as  he 
dies  in  a  strange  land;  or  Moses,  ere  he  leaves  the 
people  whom  he  had  so  long  guided,  giving  his 
last  warning  and  blessing ;  or  it  is  David  raised 
from  following  the  ewes  to  a  kingdom,  and  seeing 
a  far  more  glorious  kingdom  in  the  future.  In 
the  ages  when  the  commonwealth  has  culmi- 
nated and  is  visibly  declining  towards  a  troubled 
evening,  there   is  a  wild  and  a  plaintive  tone 


THE  SUPERNATURAL. 


217 


mingling  with  tlie  more  clieerful  notes  in  the 
song  which  the  prophets  sing.  Tliey  have  a  woe 
to  unhurden  ;  they  have  a  judgment  to  denounce 
upon  Israel  or  upon  Judah,  as  it  hecomes  hold 
in  its  idolatry  and  its  rebellion  ;  or  it  is  the  bur- 
den of  Nineveh,  or  the  burden  o£  Egypt,  or  the 
burden  of  Babylon,  or  the  burden  of  Tyre,  or  the 
burden  of  Edom,  as  each  of  these  in  its  turn 
oppresses  the  children  of  Israel,  or  threatens  to 
crush  and  extinguish  that  church  which  is  the 
hope  of  the  world.  The  spirit  of  the  prophet  is 
deeply  moved  as  he  sees  his  countrymen  forsak- 
ing the  true  God  for  the  worship  of  idols,  and 
leaning  upon  other  arms  than  the  power  of  God, 
and  he  pours  forth  his  denunciations  with  an  ear- 
nestness which  obviously  comes  from  his  deepest 
heart,  but,  at  the  same  time,  with  minuteness  of 
detail  and  incident,  which,  when  we  compare  it 
wdth  the  fulfilQient  in  after  ages,  shews  clearly  that 
his  eyes  had  been  supernaturally  opened  to  look 
into  the  far  distant  future  (Deut.  xxviii. ;  Jer.  xv. 
4,  xlvi.  13,  26  ;  Ezek.  v.  15).  It  is  when  Nineveh 
is  threatening  the  liberties,  and  the  very  exist- 
ence of  God's  people  that  Nahum  utters  his  de- 
nunciation— '*  What  do  ye  imagine  against  the 
Lord  ?  he  will  make  an  utter  end ;  affliction  shall 
not  rise  up  the  second  time.  For  while  they  be 
folden  together  as  thorns,  and  while  they  are 
drunken  as  drunkards,  they  shall  be  devoured  as 


218 


THE  SYSTEM  IN 


stubble  fully  dry;"  and  ag.iin,  "the  gates  of  the 
rivers  shall  be  opened,  and  the  palace  shall  be 
dissolved  ;"  "  the  gate  of  thy  land  shall  be  set 
wide  open  unto  thine  enemies  ;  the  fire  shall  de- 
vour thy  bars"  (Nah.  i.  10,  ii.  6,  iii.  13).  It  is 
when  the  children  of  Israel  are  going  down  to 
Egypt  for  help,  that  Ezekiel  proclaimed,  "  And 
the  pride  of  her  power  shall  come  down,"  "  and 
her  cities  shall  be  in  the  midst  of  the  cities  that 
are  wasted"  (Ezek.  xxx.  6,  7).  It  is  when  Baby- 
lon is  rising  into  power,  or  when  her  power  is  at 
its- height,  and  Judah  is  completely  at  her  mercy, 
that  one  prophet  after  another  pronounces  her 
doom  (Isa.  xiii.  ;  Jer.  1.,  li.,  &c.).  It  is  when 
Tyre  is  at  the  summit  of  its  commercial  great- 
ness and  wealth,  and  alluring  the  children  of 
Israel  to  idolatry,  tli  ;t  Ezekiel  declares  "  For 
thus  saith  the  Lord  God,  when  I  shall  make  thee 
a  desolate  city,  like  the  cities  that  are  not 
inhabited,  when  I  shall  bring  up  the  deep  upon 
thee,  and  great  waters  shall  cover  thee"  (Ezek. 
XXV,  xxvi).  At  the  very  time  when  Petra  seemed 
to  be  an  impregnable  stronghold,  and  was  an 
emporium  of  commerce,  its  desolation  was  fore- 
seen by  more  than  one  prophet  (Jer.  x.  lix.;  Ezek. 
XXXV.,  &c.).  The  prophecy  flows  ever  out  from 
the  bursting  or  bruised  heart  of  the  prophet — 
as  incense  does  from  the  crushed  plant,  or 
blood  from  the  wounded  body;    and  it  had  a 


THE  S UPERNA  T URAL. 


219 


lesson  of  warning  or  of  encouragement  to  the 
men  of  the  prophets'  times,  as  the  fulfilment 
of  it  has  a  similar  lesson  to  us  and  the  men  of 
all  times/'' 

All  this  does  not  prove,  or  tend  to  prove,  that 
the  predictions  are  merely  the  natural  utterances 
of  the  roused  spirit  of  the  prophet ;  it  simply 
shews,  that  God  had  prepared  by  natural  means 
the  instrument  into  which  he  was  to  breathe, 
and  from  which  he  was  to  bring  forth  such 
strains  of  exultation  or  of  plaintiveness.  In 
using  thinking  and  feeling  men  as  his  agents, 
God  does  not  destroy  their  intelhgence  and 
moral  feelings,  or  extinguish  their  deep  aspira- 
tions, but  rather  allows  to  all  of  them  active 
exercise  and  play,  with  a  full  outflow  and  out- 
burst. In  speaking  by  his  servants  the  prophets, 
he  speaks  not  only  by  their  mouths,  but  by  their 
hearts,  burning  with  indignation  against  sin,  and 
with  zeal  for  the  Lord  God  of  Hosts.  When  the 
kings  went  down  to  Elisha  to  consult  him,  he 
said,  "  Bring  me  a  minstrel,  and  it  came  to  pass 
when  the  minstrel  played,  that  the  hand  of  the 
Lord  God  came  upon  him."  It  is  upon  the 
spirit  of  his  servants,  roused  by  a  hatred  of  sin 
and  a  love  of  God  more  than  ever  they  were  by 

*  It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  mention  that  the  congruity  between  the 
prediction  and  the  time  at  wliich  it  was  uttered,  is  beautifully  brought   . 
out  in  "  Davison's  Discourses  on  Prophecy."  * 


220 


THE  SYSTEM  IN 


the  strains  of  the  minstrel,  that  the  Spirit  of 
God  comes  and  they  prophesy.  But  it  is  the 
Spirit  of  God  that  speaks  through  them  after 
all,  as  is  proven  hy  the  nature  of  their  utter- 
ances, so  full  of  God,  so  characterized  hy  high 
moral  aims,  and  hy  the  'fulfilment  of  their  pre- 
dictions, corresponding  in  all  cases  to  the 
general  tenor,  and  coming  down  in  innumerahle 
eases  to  the  very  letter,  of  the  prediction. 

But,  in  order  to  understand  the  accomplish- 
ment, we  must  keep  in  view  that  there  is  also  a 
systematic  development  and  an  adaptation  in 
the  time  and  manner  in  which  the  events  are 
evolved.  The  predictions  are  never  of  such  a 
character  that  they  might  enahle  any  individual, 
or  comhination  of  individuals,  either  designedly 
to  fulfil  them,  or  successfully  to  thwart  them. 
The  accomplishment  has  almost  always  heen 
brought  about  hy  pure  natural  agents,  or  by 
persons  unconscious  that  they  were  serving  any 
such  purpose ;  in  many  cases,  by  parties  seeking 
rather  to  stay  or  frustrate  them,  as  when  the 
Jews  fulfilled  the  predictions  concerning  Jesus 
in  putting  him  to  death  (Acts  xiii.  27).  The 
prophecies,  as  for  example,  those  regarding  the 
final  spread  of  the  Gospel,  are  never  so  con- 
structed as  to  encourage  those  who  read  them, 
so  to  see  the  future  that  they  may  give  up  action, 
and  idly   wait   for  what  they  know  must  come 


THE  SUPERNATUIiAL.    ■  221 

with  or  without  their  exertion.  The  event, 
when  it  occurs,  is  brought  about  by  the  usual 
course  of  things,  but  arrives  in  so  incidental  a 
manner  as  to  shew  that  no  human  sagacity  could 
have  foreseen  it ;  and  with  such  an  accordance 
between  the  words  of  prediction  and  tlie  occur- 
rence as  to  prove  that  the  prophet  had  got  a 
glimpse  of  it  down  to  its  very  details,  by  light 
from  heaven  streaming  through  the  clouds  of 
our  earth  and  illuminating  it,  till  it  caught  his 
eye  even  at  the  great  distance  at  which  it  was 
from  him.  The  system  of  prophecy  is  thus  a 
vehicle,  a  vessel  moving  through  time  at  a  some- 
what slow  but  precisely  regulated  pace,  taking 
up  the  rich  freight  it  carries  at  the  appropriate 
times,  and  giving  it  out  at  the  appointed 
places,  ever  gathering  and  ever  giving  out.  We 
see  things  only  in  progress,  but  already  there  is 
enough  accomplished  to  convince  us  that  the 
rest  will  be  fulfilled  in  its  season,  and  that  in 
the  end  not  one  jot  or  tittle  of  the  utterances  of 
the  prophets  shall  remain  unfulfilled. 

The  doctrine  of  a  double  sense  in  prophecy 
has  been  so  peiTerted,  that  calm  and  sober  men 
are  apt  to  be  prejudiced  against  it.  Its  advo- 
cates hav^  discovered  so  many  fanciful  meanings 
in  Scripture,  that  shrewd  and  suspicious  minds 
have  been  led  to  doubt  whether  it  has  a  meaning 
at  all,  and  been  sceptical  of  the  first  meaning 


222  THE  SYSTE2I  IN 

when  they  detected  such  far-fetched   attempts 
to  discover  a  second.     The  friends  of  the  Bible 
must  ever  beware  of  playing  into  the  hands  of 
the  infidel  by  making  the  oracles  of  God  bear 
any  resemblance   to   those   which   issued  from 
heathen  groves  and  temples,  in  language  which 
had  studiously  more  than  one  meaning,  in  order 
that  persons  might  fix  on  the  one  coming  closest 
to   the   event  wdien    it    actually  fell  out.     But, 
while  w^e  guard  against  this  excess,  we  must  be 
careful  not  to  strip  the   prophecies  of  any  of 
their  fulness  of  meaning — of  wdiich  the  defenders 
of  a  double  sense  had  a  glimpse,  but  which  they 
utterly  failed  to  interpret  accurately.     The  pro- 
phecy is  alv/ays  one  and  the  interpretation  is 
one  ;  but  it  may  refer  not  merely  to  one  isolated 
event,  but  to  a  series  of  occurrences,  all  of  much 
the  same  general  character,  and  developed  the 
one  from  the  other ;  it  may  refer  to  a  body  with 
a  head  and  many  members.     "  The  seven  good 
kine  are  seven  years,  and  the  seven  good  ears 
are  seven  years,  the   dream  is  one.     And  the 
seven  thin  and  ill-favoured  kine  that  came  up 
after  them  are  seven  years,  and  the  seven  empty 
ears  blasted  wdth  the  east  wind  shall  be  seven 
years  of  famine."     The  prophetical  system  here 
connects  itself  wdth  the  typical,  that  is,  with  the 
uniform  mode  of  the  Divine  procedure,  whereby 
events  are  developed  one  out  of  another,  after  a 


THE  SUPERNATURAL.  223 

pattern,  or  are  thrown  out  of  a  common  mould.* 
It  is  as  if  a  naturalist  were  to  tell  us  that  the 
palm  or  the  antelope   is  of   such  a  form  and 
aspect ;  his  description  would  not  have  a  douhle 
or  amhiguous    sense,  but  it  would  apply  to  a 
whole  group  of  plants  or  animals,  some  of  which 
however  might  more    fully   realize  the  picture 
than  others.     What  the  prophet  sees  in  vision 
is  not  so  much  a  single  mountain,  as  a  chain  of 
mountains  of  the  same  formation,  and  all  of  the 
same  general  contour ;  it  being  possible,  all  the 
while,  that  some  one,  the  largest  and  the  most 
marked,    may   be  taken    as  a  t}pe   of   all   the 
others,  and  embody  every  feature  of  the  prophet's 
vision.     Prophecy  is   thus  the  prescience  of  a 
providence  unfolding  a  Divine  plan.     The  great 
English  philosopher   who   taught  men  how  to 
interpret   nature,   has    also    taught   us   how   to 
interpret   prophecy,    "  Divine   prophecies,"  says 
Bacon,  "  being  of  the  nature  of  their  Author, 
with  whom  a  thousand  years  are  but  as  one  day, 
are  not  therefore  fulfilled  punctually  at  once, 
but  have  springing  and  germinant  accomplish- 
ment, though  the  height  and  fulness  of  them 
may  refer  to  some  one  age." 

*  There  are  remarks  with  a  profound  meaning  in  the  Chapter  on 
"  Prophetical  Types,  or  the  Combination  of  Type  with  Prophecy,"  in 
Fairbairn's  Typology  of  Scripture.  I  have  always  thought,  that  this 
able  work  is  injured  by  the  author  not  taking  the  word  type  tlirough- 
out  in  the  Scriptural  instead  of  the  theological  sense. 


224 


THE  SYSTEM  IN 


When  the  patriarchs  uttered  the  striking  pre- 
dictions regarding  their  descendants,  which  are 
recorded  in  the  early  Scriptures,  their  language 
had  no  douhle  or  uncertain  meaning ;  it  had  its 
fulfilment,  however,  not  in  a  single  person,  but 
in  the  family  or  the  tribe.  The  prophet  seizes, 
as  it  were,  on  the  family  likeness,  and  sketches 
it  on  his  canvas,  and  the  features  are  found  to 
come  out  in  the  race — possibly  with  greatest 
prominence  in  some  great  personage  in  whom 
the  prophecy  culminates.  It  is  thus  w^e  are  to 
interpret  the  developing  utterances  of  judgments 
to  descend  on  the  enemies  of  the  Church,  as  on 
Egypt,  and  on  Nineveh,  and  on  Babylon,  and  on 
Edom,  and  on  Tyre ;  they  are  executed  in  a  suc- 
cession of  events  till  Egypt  becomes  "  the  basest 
of  kingdoms"  (Ezek.  xxix.  15) ;  till  it  is  seen  how 
the  Lord  has  "  cast  abominable  filth"  upon  Ni- 
neveh, and  "  made  it  vile,  and  set  it  as  a  gazing 
stock"  (Nah.  iii.  G) ;  till  Babylon  has  "  become 
heaps,"  "without  an  inhabitant"  (Jer.  h.  37);  till 
all  the  cities  of  Edom  have  become  ''  perpetual 
wastes"  (Jer.  xlix.  13) ;  and  Tyre  "  a  place  for  the 
spreading  of  nets  in  the  midst  of  the  sea"  (Ezek. 
xxvi.  5).  It  is  thus  w^e  are  to  understand  the 
threatenings  against  the  Jews ;  they  are  accom- 
plished from  age  to  age,  but  are  reahzed  with  a 
special  emphasis  in  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem, 
first  by  Nebuchadnezzar,  and  then  by  Titus,  in 


THE  SUPERNATUBAL.  225 

which  the  most  minute  features  of  the  prophetic 
picture  come  out,  down  to  the  mother  eating  her 
own  chikl,  "  for  want  of  all  things  secretly  in  the 
siege  and  straitness,  wherewith  thine  enemy  shall 
distress  thee  in  thy  gates"  (Deut.  xxviii.  57). 
The  repeated  predictions  ahout  the  Jews  heing 
"  scattered  among  all  people  from  the  one  end  of 
the  earth  even  unto  the  other"  (Deut.  xxviii.  64), 
were  accomplished  hy  a  series  of  events  in  God's 
ordinary  providence,  as  hy  their  being  carried 
away  captive  by  the  Chaldees,  and  again  scat- 
tered by  the  Romans;  and  it  is  also,  I  suppose, 
by  natural  agency — in  part  by  the  pride  and  ob- 
stinacy of  the  Jews — that  they  are  not  to  be  lost 
while  thus  scattered,  "  saving  that  I  will  not 
utterly  destroy  the  house  of  Judah,  saith  the 
Lord,  for  lo,  I  will  command,  and  will  sift  the 
house  of  Israel  among  all  nations  like  as  corn  is 
sifted  in  a  sieve,  yet  shall  not  the  least  grain  fall 
upon  the  earth"  (Amos  ix.  8,  9).  It  is  thus,  too, 
that  we  have  the  fulfilment  of  the  general 
sketches  of  the  great  antichristian  corruption ; 
the  lineaments  come  out  in  the  course  of  ageg 
down  to  such  particulars  as  "  forbidding  to 
marry,"  and  "  commanding  to  abstain  from 
meats"  (2  Thess.  ii.  3—12;  1  Tim.  iv.  1—5).  In 
all  these  cases  the  occurrences  being  according 
to  a  type  or  law,  make  it  quite  possible  that 
tlie  prophecy,  without  having  a  double  meaning, 

p 


226  TEE  SYSTEM  IN 

may  extend   over    a  whole  course  or  series  of 
objects  or  events. 

According  to  the  view  now  given,  a  typical 
event  being  one  of  a  series,  may,  as  coming  early 
in  the  series,  be  a  precursor  and  a  sort  of  predic- 
tion of  others  to  follow.  The  deliverance  from 
Egypt  being  after  the  type  of  the  deliverance 
from  sin,  the  former  is  a  prefiguration  of  the 
latter,  and  the  analogy  holds  good  down  to 
Jesus'  coming  out  of  Egypt ;  and  hence  the  say- 
ing of  Hosea  (xi.  1),  "  when  Israel  was  a  child 
then  I  loved  him,  and  called  my  son  out  of 
Egypt,"  applies  to  Jesus  (Matt.  ii.  15).  The 
paschal  lamb  being  typical,  the  resemblance 
reaches  to  the  circumstance  that  as  a  bone  of 
the  paschal  lamb  was  not  to  be  broken,  so 
neither  was  a  bone  of  Christ  broken  as  he  hung 
on  the  cross  (Ex.  xii.  46;  John  xix.  36).  Elijah 
and  John  the  Baptist  being  of  the  same  type, 
the  latter  is  predicted  under  the  name  of  the 
former  (Mai.  iv.  5;  Mat.  xi.  14).  The  catas- 
trophe which  broke  up  the  Jewish  common- 
wealth in  the  time  of  Titus  being  of  the  same 
general  character  as  that  which  is  to  break  up 
the  present  dispensation  of  our  world,  the  pro- 
phetic description  of  the  one  merges  quite 
appropriately  into  that  of  the  other,  as  Jesus 
answers  the  questions  of  the  disciples  about  the 
destruction  of  Jerusalem,  and  the  "  end  of  the 


TEE  SUFERNATURAL.  22T 

woiid"  (Mat.  xxiv).  As  Christ  and  his  people  are 
one,  there  are  statements  which  apply  both  to 
him  and  to  them,  to  him  as  their  surety  and 
head,  and  to  them  in  him.  The  passages  in  the 
Psalms  and  the  Prophets  ahout  kings  of  the 
earth  setting  themselves,  and  the  rulers  taking 
counsel  together  against  the  T.ord  and  his 
anointed  (Ps.  ii.  2) ;  ahout  his  being  compassed 
about  with  enemies  and  forsaken  of  the  Father 
(xxii.) ,  about  a  familiar  friend  lifting  up  his  heel 
against  one  who  trusted  him  (xli.  9);  about  being 
despised,  rejected,  wounded,  bruised,  and  suffer- 
ing travail  of  soul  (Is.  liii.),  have  their  full  mean- 
ing in  him,  but  may  also  refer  to  all  who  suffer 
in  him  and  for  his  sake.  The  passages  which 
imply  sin,  such  as  "  0  God,  thou  knowest  my 
foolishness,  and  my  sins  are  not  hid  from  thee" 
(Ps.  Ixix.  5),  must  apply  primarily  to  sinners,  but 
secondarily  to  him  on  whom  was  laid  "  the  ini- 
quity of  us  all,"  and  "  who  his  own  self  bare  our 
sins  on  his  own  body  on  the  tree."  The  inter- 
pretation in  both  these  cases  is  not  two  but 
one,  because  of  the  unity  or  identity  of  the  sub- 
ject. On  the  same  principle  the  glowing  and 
exulting  passages  at  the  close  of  Isaiah,  and 
elsewhere  in  the  prophetic  writings,  as  to  the 
glories  of  the  coming  kingdom,  refer,  no  doubt, 
to  Christ's  victory  over  sin  and  death,  but  may 
be  quite  legitimately  applied  to  those  who  are 


228  TEE  S  YS  TEU  IN 

kings  under  liim,  as  they  conquer  their  sphitual 
foes,  while  it  will  receive  its  full  accomplishment 
in  what  remains  yet  to  be  disclosed  of  the 
splendors  of  Christ's  kingdom. 


SECT.  IV.— THE  PLAN  OF  CHRIST'S  LIFE. 

The  title  assumed  in  this  Section  may  seem  a 
bold,  almost  a  presumptuous  one.  But  there  is 
evidently  a  unity  in  the  constitution  of  Christ's 
person,  in  his  character,  his  life,  his  work,  and 
the  end  for  which  he  lives,  which  we  may  reve- 
rently inquire  into. 

Here,  as  in  regard  to  every  other  object  falling 
under  our  notice,  we  find  that  we  cannot  go 
back  to  the  absolute  beginning :  the  fountain  is 
among  heights  beyond  our  reach.  But  far  as 
our  eyes  can  penetrate  we  see  that  there  is  a 
Divine  Counsel  and  a  Divine  Plan ;  and  it  is 
ordained  that  the  Logos  which  was  "  in  the  begin- 
ning," which  "  was  with  God,"  and  "was  God," 
is,  in  the  fulness  of  time,  to  associate  himself 
with  humanity,  and  to  appear  on  our  earth,  there 
to  engage  in  a  work  with  far-reaching  conse- 
quences, and  to  submit  to  awful  suffering  and  a 
mysterious  death ;  out  of  which  mighty  good  is 
to  accrue  to  our  ^vorld,  as  grain  springs  from  the 
corn  of  wheat  which  is  buried  in  the  earth  and 


THE  SUPERNATURAL.  229 

dies  there  (John  xii.  24).  What  a  depth  of 
meaning  in  the  expression  the  "  Lamh  shxin 
from  the  foundation  of  the  workl !"  (Rev.  xiii.  8j. 
A  vast  apparatus  of  means  is  set  agoing  in  order 
to  his  coming ;  before  him  is  a  glorious  streak- 
ing, rising  into  a  glow,  in  the  sky  ere  he  rises. 
From  the  long  procession  that  goes  before  of 
stars  to  light  tlie  Old  Testament  Church,  we 
have  some  idea  of  what  the  greater  Light  is  to 
be.  At  the  set  time  he  appears  on  our  earth  ; 
a  body  having  been  prepared  for  him,  that  he 
might  be  bone  of  our  bone  and  flesh  of  our 
flesh,  only  without  any  of  the  hereditary  sin 
that  cleaves  to  us.  Descending  from  a  supra- 
mundane  sphere,  he  enters  completely  within 
our  terrene  sphere,  and  accommodates  himself 
to  all  its  laws.  He  takes  upon  him,  not  the 
nature  of  angels,  but  is  the  seed  of  the  woman, 
and  the  seed  of  Abraham ;  he  is  born  of  a 
woman ;  is  in  weak  and  helpless  infancy,  grows 
in  wisdom  and  in  stature,  is  subject  to  Joseph 
and  Mary ;  he  eats,  drinks,  and  sleeps ;  he  walks 
on  the  earth's  surface,  bound  to  it  and  its  ordi- 
nances, and  subjected  to  its  privations  as  any 
other  weary  man  is, — only  as  we  look,  as  we 
cannot  but  look,  at  his  person,  we  see  the  glory 
shining  through  the  veil  of  flesh  ;  and  while  we 
feel  that  he  is  man,  emphatically  man,  the  model 
man,  the  Son  of  Man,  we   are   ever  made  to 


230 


TEE  SYSTEM  IN 


acknowledge  and  to  realize  that  he  is  clothed 
with  Divine  perfections,  that  he  is  also,  and  at 
the  same  time,  the  Son  of  God, — the  twofold 
nature  heing  all  the  while  comhined  in  a  simple 
unity,  the  parts  of  which  cannot  he  separated 
nor  decomposed. 

As  we  meet  with  him  and  hold  intercourse 
with  him  (as  he  allows  us  to  do),  we  are  sure 
that  we  have  fallen  in  with  a  heing  who  is  not, 
who  cannot  he  of  this  earth.  Lowly  he  no  douht 
is,  hut  the  lowlier  he  is  in  guise,  we  are  the 
more  certain  that  we  have  fallen  hi  with  one  who 
has  alighted  from  a  higher  and  purer  region, 
and  hears  with  him  the  air  of  his  lofty  rank. 
It  is  clear  that  he  has  not  come  to  our  earth  for 
the  purposes  of  display.  Ever  hiding  himself 
from  the  view,  it  turns  out  that  he  cannot  be 
hid ;  growing  up  "  like  a  tender  plant,"  our 
attention  is  called  to  him  by  the  fragrance 
which  breathes  from  him.  Onr  eyes  are  fixed 
on  him  as  he  passes  by,  and  we  discern  his 
beauty ;  but  as  we  feel  it  we  experience  a  diffi- 
culty in  saying  wherein  it  consists,  just  as  we 
cannot  tell  wherein  lies  the  lovehness  of  light, 
we  can  only  point  to  it  as  we  would  to  a  star, 
and  say,  behold  and  see  its  beauty  for  yourselves. 
It  is  now  believed  that  the  light  and  heat  of  the 
sun  do  not, come  natively  from  himself,  but  are 
the  result  of  an   action  from  without ;  but  the 


THE  SUPEIiXATURAL. 


231 


light  and  beat,  the  light  of  purity  and  the 
warmth  of  love,  that  radiate  from  Jesus,  come 
from  his  very  nature  and  his  inner  heart,  and 
they  flow  out  spontaneously  on  all  around.  It 
is  the  very  hght  of  God,  but  shining  through  a 
veil  of  humanity,  and  so  seen  by  us  under  a 
milder  lustre,  which  indeed  allures  but  does 
not  blind  us.  We  are  encouraged  to  draw  nigli 
to  bim ;  we  feel  "  drawn  with  the  cords  of  a 
man,  wnth  bands  of  love  ;"  in  coming  to  him  we 
feel  that  it  is  man  coming  to  man ;  that  he  is 
the  very  type  of  man,  the  man  of  men,  with  the 
nature,  with  the  heart  of  a  brother ;  and  we  go 
into  his  presence  and  his  company,  and  he  talks 
with  us  by  the  way,  and  is  known  by  us  in  the 
breaking  of  bread, — the  conviction  being  ever 
pressed  upon  us  that  there  is  more  than  man 
here — that  there  is  one  with  a  Divine  power 
and  drawing  us  with  a  Divine  love.  High,  no 
doubt,  he  is,  so  high  that  we  cannot  attain  to 
his  elevation  ;  but  w^e  see  that  as  he  stands  on 
his  height,  he  is  holding  out  a  hand  to  help  us 
to  rise  to  him.  Bright,  no  doubt,  is  his  example, 
so  bright  that  we  discover  w^e  can  never  come 
up  to  it ;  and  yet  we  feel  that  we  are  purified  in 
looking  at  it  by  faith,  and  sanctified  in  the 
attempt  to  copy  it. 

As  he  emerges  into  view  from  the  designed 
obscurity  of  his  childhood,  we  see  that  he  has 


232  TEE  S  YSTEM  IX 

a  work  to  do.  Ere  that  ^Yo^k  is  fully  entered 
on  he  looks  forward  to  it,  and  at  the  age  of 
twelve  he  intimates  that  he  "  must  he  ahout  his 
father's  business."  As  he  commences  his  public 
ministiy,  he  announces  "  that  he  must  fulfil  all 
righteousness."  It  is  clear  that  he  is  under 
some  covenant  to  do  this  and  avoid  that.  Thus, 
he  cannot  command  stones  to  he  made  bread,  to 
appease  prolonged  hunger  undergone  in  obe- 
dience to  the  Father  s  will,  and,  as  we  know,  to 
make  atonement  for  man's  sins  of  appetite.  He 
has  an  allotted  time  to  do  the  work.  "  I  must 
work  the  works  of  him  that  sent  me,  while  it  is 
day  :  the  night  cometh,  when  no  man  can  work" 
(John  ix.  4).  When  his  hour  is  not  yet  come 
he  will  not  be  hastened  (John  ii.  4  ;  vii.  6) ;  and 
his  enemies  are  powerless  in  their  attempts  to 
seize  him  (John  vii.  30  ;  viii.  30).  When  his 
time  is  come,  he  is  delivered  into  the  hands  of 
men  who  thwart  their  own  purposes,  and  un- 
consciously accomplish  the  counsels  of  heaven 
in  crucifying  him  (Matt.  xxvi.  18,  45  ;  Luke 
xxii.  14  ;  John  xii.  23  ;  xiii.  1  ;  xviii.  1).  There 
is  evident  relief  and  satisfaction  when,  in  re- 
ference to  the  arduous  work  given  him  to  do,  he 
is  able  to  say,  "It  is  finished"  (John  xvih  4  ; 
xix.  30). 

He  has  not  only  a  work  to  do,  he  has  a  suffer- 
ing to  submit  to.     He  is  tempted  in  all  respects 


TEE  SUrERXATURAL. 


233 


like  as  we  are  ;  he  1ms  to  earn  his  sustenance 
by  the  sweat  of  his  face,  or  have  it  supphed  to 
him  in  his  wanderings  by  the  charity  of  those 
who  are  smitten  with  love  to  him  ;  he  is  without 
house,  or  home,  or  where  to  lay  his  head  ;  he  is 
exposed  to  hunger  and  thirst,  to  pain  of  body  and 
sorrow  of  mind ;  we  read  of  his  "  strong  crying 
and  tears  ;"  and  it  is  appointed  unto  him,  as 
unto  all  men,  once  to  die.  He  walks  our  earth, 
and  does  his  work,  and  submits  to  these  priva- 
tions, being  all  the  while  under  a  mysterious 
load  such  as  no  other  human  being  had  ever  to 
submit  to, — being  such,  indeed,  that  we  cannot 
fully  fathom  the  cloud,  though  we  get  some  idea 
of  its  vastness  and  its  blackness,  as  certain  ex- 
pressions break  from  him :  "I  have  a  baptism 
to  be  baptized  with ;  and  how  am  I  straitened 
till  it  be  accomplished"  (Luke  xii.  50).  He  can- 
not express  it  to  men,  but  pours  it  out  to  his 
heavenly  father.  "  How  is  my  soul  troubled ; 
and  what  shall  I  say,  father,  save  me  from  this 
hour ;  but  for  this  cause  came  I  unto  this  hour" 
(John  xii.  27).  We  comprehend  much,  but  cannot 
fathom  all  the  depth  that  is  in  such  expressions 
as  these,  "  Being  in  an  agony,"  "  My  soul  is  exceed- 
ing sorrowful,  even  unto  death."  We  see  that  it 
is  an  agony  exceeding  that  which  has  been  laid 
on  ordinary  martyrs,  who  have  often  triumphed 
in  the  prospect  of  their  death  ;  a  sorrow  exceed- 


234 


THE  SYSTEM  IN 


iiig  the  deej^est  gloom  that  has  ever  gathered 
around  an  ordinary  human  spirit,  as  it  took  the 
darkest  view  of  itself  and  of  the  world,  of  sin  and 
of  God.  All  this  has  heen  appointed  beforehand, 
in  an  everlasting  counsel  to  which  he  had  heen 
a  consenting  party,  and  he  submits  to  it  in  ac- 
complishment of  what  had  heen  undertaken  by 
him.  He  shewed  his  disciples  how  he  "  must 
go  unto  Jerusalem,  and  suffer  many  things  of 
the  elders  and  chief  priests  and  scribes,  and  be 
killed  and  be  raised  again  the  third  day"  (Matt. 
xvi.  4).  He  told  them  after  his  resurrection, 
"  Thus  it  is  written,  and  thus  it  behoved  Christ 
to  suffer  and  to  rise  from  the  dead  on  the  third 
day"  (Luke  xxiv.  46). 

This  work  and  these  sorrows  had  evidently 
very  profound  purposes  to  fulfil.  We  should 
never  pretend  to  be  able  to  compass  all  the  ends 
served  by  them,  as  they  look  towards  God  and 
his  glory,  towards  other  worlds,  towards  all  the 
things  that  were  created  by  him,  ''that  are  in 
heaven  and  that  are  on  earth,  visible  and  in- 
visible, whether  they  be  thrones  or  dominions, 
or  principalities  or  powers"  (Col.  i.  10).  But  we 
can  discover  and  apprehend  some  of  the  grand 
designs  accomplished,  for  they  are  revealed  in  the 
Word,  they  have  a  reference  to  us,  and  we  hear 
a  voice  responding  in  our  bosoms.  The  moral 
monitor  within  tells  us,  that  w^e  ought  to  work 


THE  SUPERNATURAL.  235 

out  a  righteousness  upon  the  earth,  and  that  we 
have  not  done  so  ;  and  here  Christ  is  represented 
as  providing  it  for  us,  that  we  may  receive  it  by 
faith  (Rom.  iii.  22).  We  have  it  clearly  an- 
nounced, that  by  these  sufferings  Jesus  pays  a 
penalty  and  secures  a  redemption — "  For  Christ 
also  once  suiiered  for  sins,  the  just  for  the  unjust, 
that  he  might  bring  us  to  God"  (I  Pet.  iii.  IS). 
In  all  this,  glory  is  given  to  God.  "  Father, 
glorify  thy  name.  Then  came  there  a  voice  from 
heaven,  saying,  I  have  both  glorified  it,  and  will 
glorify  it  again"  (John  xii.  28).  We  can  so  far 
understand,  because  we  can  appreciate  this,  this 
obedience  rendered  in  default  of  ours,  these  suf- 
ferings endured  in  our  room  and  stead.  The 
structure  thus  raised  over  a  grave,  and  cemented 
by  blood,  may  have  relations  indiscernible  by 
us  ;  it  goes  down  to  depths  which  are  beneath, 
and  it  goes  up  to  heights  which  are  above  our 
view ;  still  it  stands  there  as  a  bridge  with  deep 
foundations  and  strong  ramparts,  with  a  way 
opened  by  which  we  may  pass  from  a  state  of 
condemnation  to  a  state  of  justification,  from  a 
state  of  alienation  to  a  state  of  fellowship.  "  My 
God,  my  God,  why  hast  thou  forsaken  me?"  was 
the  question  put  in  earnest  tones  by  the  sufferer 
upon  the  cross,  and  no  answer  was  given,  for  he 
who  put  it  was,  at  the  time,  under  the  hidings  of 
the  father's  face.      Let  us  come  to  the  foot  of 


236 


THE  SYSTEM  7.V 


the  cross  and  answer  it :  '*  He  was  wounded  for 
our  transgressions,  he  was  bruised  for  our  iniqui- 
ties, the  chastisement  of  our  peace  was  upon  him, 
and  with  his  stripes  we  are  healed." 

As  he  descended  at  first  from  a  higher  sphere, 
so  we  feel  all  along  that  he  cannot  remain  for 
ever  on  our  sin-tainted  earth,  and  we  expect  him 
to  mount  into  the  pure  region  whence  he  came. 
When  he  ascends  into  heaven,  it  is  "  he  that 
came  down  from  heaven,  even  the  son  of  man 
which  is  in  heaven."  We  go  out  with  him  as 
far  as  Bethany.  In  accommodation,  as  it  were,  to 
the  natural,  he  goes  up  in  order  to  his  ascension, 
to  the  Mount  of  Olives  ;  but  it  is  by  a  super- 
natural power  that  he  thence  ascends  into  hea- 
ven. A  cloud  wraps  him  from  our  view.  We 
are  sure  that  he  who  has  toiled  and  suffered  and 
died  for  the  children  of  men,  will  not  forget  them 
in  his  new  sphere,  but  will  bear  them  upon  his 
heart.  We  rejoice  when  we  learn  that  he  ever 
liveth  to  make  intercession  for  us,  that  he  has 
gone  to'prepare  a  place  for  us,  tbat  he  sends  his 
Spirit  to  prepare  us  for  that  place,  that  he  will 
come  again  and  take  us  to  himself ;  and  we  feel 
that  it  must  be  the  highest  blessedness  to  dwell 
in  his  presence,  to  drink  of  his  wisdom,  and 
share  in  his  joys. 

This  is  the  portrait  presented  to  us,  set  in  a 
very  simple  framework  evidently  constructed  by 


THE  SUPERNATURAL.  237 

men  of  no  artistic  skill.  Can  it  have  been  drawn 
from  imagination  by  fishermen  and  mechanics 
from  Galilee  ?  As  this  question  is  put  to  us  we 
answer  unhesitatingly,  that  it  must  have  been 
taken  from  a  living  original. 


SECT,  v.— THE  SYSTEM  OF  MIRACLES. 

There  is  evidently  a  rule  in  the  Divine  Mind 
according  to  which  miraculous  interferences  take 
place,  and  this  whether  man  is  or  is  not  able 
to  ascertain .  its  exact  nature.  Miracles  have 
not  been  wrought  in  all  ages  ;  they  seem  to  be 
confined  to  selected  seasons,  when  there  were  to 
be  developments  of  that  plan  of  redemption 
which  had  been  devised  before  the  creation  of 
the  world.  Even  in  the  ages  in  which  they 
occur  they  are  not  performed  everywhere  and 
on  every  occasion.  The  working  of  God  in  our 
world  is,  in  all  ages  and  countries,  as  the  usual 
rule,  not  after  the  supernatural,  but  the  natural 
mode,  which  is  always  to  be  understood,  how- 
ever, as  embracing  a  pre-ordained  providence, 
bending  down  with  adaptive  llexibility  to  the 
case  of  the  most  minute  objects.  God  would 
have  all  men,  always  and  everywhere,  to  look 
for  the  ordinary  supply  of  their  wnnts  to  that 
cosmical  administration  which  he  planned  from 


238  THE  SYSTEM  IN 

the  beginning  in  infinite  wisdom,  which  his 
intelhgent  creatures  may  practically  understand, 
and  to  which  they  find  it  good  to  conform ;  and 
he  never  leads  them  to  entertahi  the  hope  that 
he  is  bound  to  interfere,  or  is  likely  to  interpose, 
to  save  them  from  the  consequences  of  their 
own  folly,  or  to  ward  ofi"  afiliction  which  may  be 
predestinated  for  their  good. 

Our  Lord  let  the  Jews  know  very  decidedly, 
that  miracles  w^ere  not  to  be  performed  on  the 
demand  of  every  applicant  craving  for  wonders, 
or  anxious  to  be  freed  from  attending  to  the 
means  w^hich  Providence  has  sajictioned  for 
securing  the  ordinary  blessings  of  life,  When 
he  saw  that  the  multitudes  were  beginning  to 
follow  him  because  of  the  loaves  and  fishes 
which  he  had  multiplied,  he  wrought  no  more 
wonders  of  that  description.  He  rebukes  the 
Jew^s  because  they  were  ever  demanding  signs 
from  heaven,  and  he  told  the  people  of  the  city 
ir^  wdiich  he  had  been  brought  up,  "  I  tell  you 
of  a  truth,  many  widows  w^ere  in  Israel  in  the 
days  of  Elias,  when  the  heaven  w^as  shut  up 
three  years  and  six  months,  when  great  famine 
was  throughout  all  the  land ;  but  unto  none  of 
them  was  Elias  sent,  save  unto  Sarepta,  a  city 
of  Sidon,  unto  a  woman  that  was  a  widow.  And 
many  lepers  w^ere  in  Israel  in  the  time  of  Ehseus 
the  prophet;  and  none  of  them  was  cleansed, 


THE  SUPERXATURAL.  239 

save  Naamaii  the    Syrian"  (Luke  iv.   25 — 27). 
Those  human  agents,  who  were  empowered  hy 
God  to  work  miracles,  could  perform  them  not 
at   their   own    pleasure,    hut   only  as   a  higher 
wisdom  saw  lit  to  allow  them.     Our  Lord  refuses 
to  turn  stones  into  hread,  in  order  to  relieve  the 
cravings  of  hunger  within  him,  and  announces 
clearly  that   man  must  suhmit  to  the  natural 
ordinances  of   God ;    he  declines   also   to    cast 
himself  down  from  the  pinnacle  of  the  temple, 
and  to  make  an  empty  show  hy  saving  himself 
from  the  natural  consequences ;  and  he  declares 
that,  to  act  otherwise,  w^ould  he  a  tempting  of 
God.     We  can  see  a  reason,  I  think,  why  he 
should  not  have  come  down  from  the  cross  when 
his  persecutors  demanded  it ;   for,  had  he  come 
down,  man  must  have  sunk  into  the  depths  of 
perdition.     But,  no  douht,  he  had  equally  pro- 
found and  cogent  reasons,  in  other  cases,  for 
refusing  to  interfere  with  tliose  normal  arrange- 
ments of  things  which  the  Godhead,  and  he  in 
the  Godhead,  had  made  in  the  depths  of  eternity. 
There  were  evidently  rules  laid  down  hy  him  in 
infinite  wisdom  as  to  the  dispensation  of  mira- 
culous powers.     The  disciples  ask  him  wliy  they 
were  defeated  in  their  attempts  to  dispossess  a 
person  lahouring   under   demoniacal  influence, 
and  he  tells  them  it  was  because  of  their  unbe- 
lief, and  adds,  "  howbeit  this  kind  gocth  not  out 


2-40  THE  SYSTEM  I.Y 

but  by  prayer  and  fasting"  (Matt.  xvii.  21).  It 
is  said  of  him,  that  when  he  went  into  his  own 
country,  ''  he  eoukl  not  do  many  mighty  works 
there  because  of  their  unbehef."  Not.  surely, 
that  it  was  physically  impossible  for  him  to  do 
so,  but  because  there  were  rules  of  wisdom 
according  to  which  he  dispensed,  or  allowed  to 
be  dispensed,  his  supernatural  gifts;  and  it  was 
one  rule,  that  there  must  be  faith  on  the  part 
of  the  worker,  if  need  be,  to  the  extent  of  engag- 
ing in  special  fasting  and  prayer,  and  faith,  too, 
on  the  part  of  the  recipient,  faith  proceeding  on 
what  Jesus  had  ah'eady  done  as  the  ground  of  new 
favours. 

It  is  clear,  from  his  whole  manner  of  acting, 
that  to  Jesus  the  natural  and  the  supernatural 
are  alike  possible  and  alike  easy — alike  natural 
if  we  may  so  speak.  Yet  he  is  ever  restraining 
himself  in  the  outgoings  of  his  miraculous 
energy.  He  is  hke  the  man  of  large  weahh  and 
large  benevolence,  who  could  always  give  charity, 
but  does  not  always  do  so ;  giving  so  often  as  to 
shew  that  he  is  always  disposed  to  give,  and  with- 
holding only  when  he  has  good  reasons, — very 
commonly  in  the  circumstances  or  character  of 
the  applicant,  and  because  mischief  would  follow. 
So  it  is  with  Jesus  ;  we  see  that  there  is  all 
power  in  him,  but  that  he  is  ever  keeping  back 
the  supernatural  exercise  out  of  respect  to  the 


THE  SUPERNATURAL.  241 

natural,  which  is  his  own  ordinance ;  and  out  of 
respect  to  mankind,  who  understand  the  natural, 
and  must  gather  their  ordinary  instruction  and 
blessings  through  it ;  and  out  of  respect  to  his 
own  disciples,  who  must  not  be  allowed  to  expect 
that  the  supernatural  will  take  the  place  of  the 
natural  in  the  common  affairs  of  life;  and  because 
he  ever  expected  faith, — as  the  benevolent  man 
expects  gratitude  in  the  measure  of  the  favours 
bestowed. 

It  would  be  a  great  mistake  to  suj)pose  that 
the  miracles,  wrought  by  Moses  and  the  prophets 
in  the  Old  Testament  times,  or  by  Christ  and  his 
Apostles  in  New  Testament  times,  were  meant 
merely  to  show  the  Divine  power,  or  to  act  as 
evidences  of  the  truth  of  religion.  He  who  takes 
this  narrow  and  exclusive  view,  will  find  himself 
in  hopeless  difficulties  when  he  would  under- 
stand the  miracles ;  for  he  would  see  on  the  one 
hand,  that  all  the  supernatural  acts  performed 
were  not  specially  evidences  of  the  truth  of  reve- 
lation, and  on  the  other  hand,  that  our  Lord 
often  refused  to  perform  miraculous  acts  which 
would  have  been  proof  of  his  Divine  power. 

The  extravagant  statements  in  regard  to  mira- 
cles, by  certain  defenders  of  Christianity,  in  the 
two  or  three  last  ages,  have  led  some  in  our  day 
to  depreciate  them  altogether  as  evidences.  This 
I  reckon  a  ver^^  unjustiliable  reaction,  which  has 

Q 


242  THE  SYSTEM  IN 

led  the  parties  into  a  very  unwise  and  unsafe 
position.  For  in  the  Word  of  God  miracles 
are  appealed  to  in  proof  of  the  supernatural 
power  of  Jesus,  and  of  the  truth  of  the  doctrines 
which  he  taught.  Nicodemus  comes  to  Jesus 
as  a  teacher  sent  from  God,  on  the  avowed 
ground  that  no  man  could  do  the  miracles 
which  Jesus  did  except  God  were  with  him. 
When  the  Baptist  sent  two  of  his  disciples  to 
ask  of  Jesus  if  he  were  the  Messiah,  "  Jesus 
answered  and  said  unto  them,  Go  and  shew 
John  again  those  things  which  ye  do  hear  and 
see ;  the  hlind  receive  their  sight  and  the  lame 
walk,  the  lepers  are  cleansed  and  the  deaf  hear, 
the  dead  are  raised  up  and  the  poor  have  the 
Gospel  preached  to  them "  (Matt.  xi.  4,  5). 
"  The  works  which  the  Father  hath  given  me 
to  finish,  the  same  works  that  I  do,  hear  witness 
of  me  that  the  Father  hath  sent  me"  (John  v.  86). 
"  The  works  that  I  do  in  my  Father's  name,  they 
hear  witness  of  me "  (John  x.  25).  "  Believe 
the  works,  that  ye  may  know  and  helieve  that 
the  Father  is  in  me,  and  I  in  him"  (x.  38).  He 
requires  us  to  believe  him  "  for  the  very  works' 
sake"  (John  xiv.  11).  "And  many  other  signs 
truly  did  Jesus  in  the  presence  of  his  disciples, 
which  are  not  written  in  this  hook ;  hut  these 
are  written  that  ye  may  believe  that  Jesus  is 
the  Christ,  the  Son  of  God ;  and  that  believing 


TEE  SUPERXATURAL.  243 

ye  may  have  life  through  his  name"  (John  xx. 
30,  31).  It  has  heen  said,  that  the  apostles  ap- 
pealed to  miracles  only  hefore  rude  and  unlettered 
people  ;  but  in  speaking  to  the  men  of  Athens 
of  the  resurrection  of  the  dead  and  of  the  judg- 
ment day,  Paul  declares,  '^  whereof  he  hath 
given  assurance  unto  all  men,  in  that  lie  hath 
raised  him  from  the  dead"  (Acts  xvii.  31).  In 
order  to  have  the  circle  of  witnesses  complete 
when  Judas  fell,  it  was  ordered,  that  of  those 
men  which  had  companied  with  the  other  dis- 
ciples, "  all  the  time  Jesus  went  out  and  in 
among  us,  beginning  from  the  baptism  of  John 
until  that  same  day  he  was  taken  up  from  us, 
must  one  be  ordained  to  be  a  witness  with  us  of 
the  resurrection"  (Acts  i.  21,  22). 

He  who  leaves  the  supernatural  element  out 
of  Christ's  life  is  abandoning  his  cause,  and  if  he 
be  a  professed  defender  of  Christianity,  he  is 
betraying  it.  If  the  writers  of  the  Gospel  his- 
tory be  true  men,  as  they  certainly  seem,  Jesus 
must  have  performed  actions  far  beyond  the 
power  of  nature — for  example,  if  there  be  any 
truth  in  their  statements,  he  must  have  risen 
from  the  grave.  If  they  be  not  true  men,  but 
mere  inditers  of  myths,  our  faith  in  Jesus  as  a 
reality  is  gone.  Men  of  common  sense,  in  everv 
walk  of  life,  see  this  at  once ;  nor  ^vill  it  be  pos- 
sible for  those  who  have  set  them  shding  on  the 


244  THE  SYSTEM  IN 

downward  scale,  to  stop  tliem  in  tlieir  descent. 
Nor  would  the  supposed  miracles  be  any  proof  of 
the  Divine  Mission  of  Jesus,  were  they  merely 
portents — that  is,  curious  natural  phenomena, 
seized  by  knowing  men  to  favour  their  own  ends. 
Once  look  upon  them  as  in  any  sense  ingenious 
deceptions — such  as  that  which  Columbus  played 
upon  ignorant  men  when  he  predicted  an  eclipse 
— and  our  faith  in  revelation  is  shaken  to  its  foun- 
dation, with  nothing  left  on  which  to  rebuild  it. 
Once  admit  that  there  is  studious  concealment 
or  trickery  of  any  kind,  and  every  honest  feeling 
within  us  insists,  that  those  who  employed  this 
cannot  have  had  the  authority  of  the  God  of 
truth. 

But  while  the  works  performed  by  Jesus  are 
certainly  evidences  of  the  Divinity  of  his  mis- 
sion, we  must  also  regard  them  in  other  lights 
and  as  serving  other  ends.  The  supernatural 
events  of  the  New  Testament  go  by  three  dif- 
ferent names,  each  of  which  represents  them 
under  a  different  aspect.  Peter  represented 
Jesus  as  "  a  man  approved  of  God  among  you 
by  powers  and  wonders  and  signs"  (dwd/Mg/  y.m 
repaffi  kai  Gn/jLskig^  Acts  ii.  22).  They  are  called 
*'  powers,"  as  expressive  of  the  mighty  power 
at  work.  They  are  called  "  wonders,"  because 
they  summpned  and  legitimately  commanded 
attention.      They   are    also    called    "  signs,"   as 


THE  SUFERNATUP.AL.  245 

significant  of  something  beyond  themselves,  as 
manifestations  of  a  Divine  operation  and  as 
evidence  that  God  is  giving  his  sanction.  The 
"  powers,  wonders,  and  signs  "  wrought  by  Jesus 
Christ  were  hke  his  discourses,  the  expression 
of  his  full  character,  of  his  power  no  doubt,  but 
also  of  his  wisdom  and  his  love.  I  believe  they 
were  a  "  type"  or  "  sign"  of  his  special  mission. 

It  is  a  circumstance  worthy  of  being  noted 
and  pondered,  that  by  far  the  greater  number  of 
the  miracles  performed  by  Jesus  Christ  when  he 
was  on  earth  consisted  in  the  healing  of  diseases. 
Not  that  they  were  exclusively  of  this  description. 
They  ranged  over  a  large  portion  of  the  wide 
domains  of  nature.  His  birth  was  announced 
by  an  angel ;  when  he  was  born  a  company  of 
the  heavenly  host  appeared  to  shepherds  on  the 
plains  of  Bethlehem  ;  at  his  baptism  the  heavens 
were  opened ;  at  his  command  winds  and  waves 
were  hushed,  a  fig  tree  withered  away,  a  herd  of 
swine  ran  headlong  into  the  sea,  and  fishes  filled 
the  nets  of  the  Apostles ;  Moses  and  Elias  con- 
versed with  him  on  the  mount  of  transfiguration ; 
an  angel  was  seen  strengthening  him  in  the 
garden  of  Gethsemane ;  he  expired  amid  con- 
vulsions of  nature  ;  an  earthquake  threw  open 
the  sepulchre  on  the  morning  of  the  resurrec- 
tion ;  and  at  last  the  heavens  received  him  as  he 
ascended  into  glory.     Still,  by  far  the  greater 


246 


TEE  SYSTEM  ilV 


number  of  his  signs  and  wonders  were  "  powers" 
of  healing,  and  to  them  he  referred  wdien  the 
disciples  of  the  Baptist  were  sent  to  inquire  if  he 
w^ere  the  Messiah  (Mat.  xi.  5).  The  question 
arises,  why  were  his  miracles  usually  of  this 
character  ? 

1.  In  this  w^ay  our  Lord  shewed  his  bene- 
volence as  well  as  his  power.  His  *'  powers" 
w^re  not  displayed  in  such  acts  as  in  making 
rivers  run  back  to  their  sources  ;  or  in  causing 
the  heavenly  bodies  to  w^ander  from  their  spheres, 
or  in  spreading  wasting  and  destruction.  How 
different  in  their  whole  spirit  and  character  are 
the  miracles  of  Jesus,  from  those  attributed  to 
Simon  Magus,  wdio  was  reported  to  have  shewn 
walking  statues,  to  have  made  dogs  of  brass  and 
stone  to  bark,  and  mountains  to  leap,  wdiile  he 
himself  flew  through  the  air.  Our  Lord  came 
not  to  destroy  men's  lives,  but  to  save ;  and  his 
"  powers"  consisted  mainly,  in  remedying  the 
evils  existing  on  our  earth,  specially  in  healing 
those  who  were  afflicted  wdth  bodily  maladies. 
He  thus  accomj)lished,  as  God  commonly  does  in 
his  providence,  two  ends  by  one  and  the  same 
means: — he  showed  that  he  came  to  this  earth 
gifted  with  Divine  power ;  but  he  shew^ed  too, 
that  he  came  filled  with  Divine  Love. 

2.  Our  Lord's  miracles  were  typical.  He  came 
to  restore  order  where  disorder  had  prevailed ; 


TEE  STTPERKATURAL. 


247 


and  it  was  most  sigiiiticant  that  his  chief  works 
should  have  consisted  in  remedying  evils,  spe- 
cially in  giving  health  to  the  diseased.  His 
miracles  were  thus  expressions  of  his  wisdom 
and  prescience,  as  well  as  of  his  love  and  power. 
They  were  after  the  model  or  form  of  his  general 
office  and  mission  ;  they  were  ensamples  of  the 
power  which  he  has  exercised  in  all  ages,  and 
which  he  is  exercising  in  this,  in  delivering  the 
souls  of  men  from  the  dominion  of  sin — "  Who 
forgiveth  all  thine  iniquities,  who  healeth  all  thy 
diseases." 

The  diseases  which  Christ  cured  may  be  re- 
garded as  typical  of  the  spiritual  maladies  healed 
by  him.  Sin  is  to  the  soul  wdiat  disease  is  to  the 
body.  Disease  is  to  man  the  fruit  of  sin — of 
which  every  one  must  have  felt  it  to  be  an  ex- 
pressive outward  image.  Disease  springs  from 
a  derangement  of  the  organs — it  hinders  the 
proper  exercise  of  the  functions ;  disease  is 
death  begun,  death  is  disease  finished.  So  sin 
is  a  disease  in  the  soul ;  "  when  lust  hath  con- 
ceived it  bringeth  forth  sin,  and  sin,  when  it  is 
finished,  bringeth  forth  death."  All  men  are 
under  sin,  just  as  all  men  are  liable  to  disease. 
But  in  what  a  variety  of  ways  may  the  disease 
which  wastes  and  finally  destroys  the  body  attack 
us  ;  it  may  come  in  the  loss  of  some  of  the  bodily 
senses,  in  the  quenching  of  the  eye,  or  the  stop- 


248 


THE  SYSTEM  IN 


ping  of  the  ear ;  it  may  come  in  the  lameness  of 
an  arm  or  limb  ;  in  the  paralysis  which  deprives 
an  essential  member  at  once  of  all  power  of 
action ;  it  may  come  as  fever,  drinking  up  the 
strength  by  its  heat,  or  as  brain  malady,  which 
makes  the  very  intellect  to  reel  and  stagger. 
The  sin  which  assails  all,  may  come  in  a  like  di- 
versity of  forms.  Let  no  one  congratulate  him- 
self in  the  idea  that  he  is  not  a  sinner,  because 
he  has  not  fallen  into  every  possible  sin.  The 
self  righteous  man  boasts  that  he  is  not  immoral, 
and  the  drunkard  that  he  is  not  dishonest. 
It  is  as  if  a  man  were  to  boast  that  he.  is  in 
health  because  his  limbs  are  whole,  when  con- 
sumption may  have  begun  its  wasting  process  in 
a  vital  organ.  As  all  men  are  under  spiritual 
disease,  so  all  men  need  a  soul  physician,  and 
such  we  have  in  Him  who,  when  on  earth, 
"  healed  all  manner  of  sickness,  and  all  manner 
of  disease  among  the  people." 

We  may  regard  the  varied  modes  in  which 
persons  seeking  a  cure  came  to  Jesus  when  on 
earth,  as  typical  of  the  ways  in  which  the  sinner 
should  draw^  nigh  to  the  Saviour.  There  were 
commonly  means  of  some  kind  employed,  by 
those  who  had  their  infirmities  healed  by  Jesus. 
They  had  heard  somehow  or  other  of  him  and 
his  miraculous  power,  they  were  impressed  with 
their  need  of  some  one  to  deliver  them  from 


THE  S VPERNATURAL. 


249 


their  maladies,  and  tliey  were  led  to  believe  that 
Jesus  could  do  this.  So  far  all  were  alike.  In 
other  respects  they  differed, — very  much  I  suppose 
according  to  the  natural  character  and  tempera- 
ment of  the  individual,  and  the  circumstances  in 
which  he  was  placed.  Some,  when  they  heard 
he  was  approaching,  laid  their  case  before  him 
as  he  passed.  Others  sought  him  out  when  he 
was  yet  at  a  distance.  Some  were  not  able 
to  come  to  him  themselves  because  of  their  lame- 
ness, or  sickness,  or  palsy,  but  they  secured 
friends  who  carried  them  to  him  on  couches. 
Some  cried  to  him  with  loud  importunity,  as 
feeling  the  urgency  of  their  case.  Thus  the  two 
blind  men  begging  by  the  way  side,  when  they 
heard  that  Jesus  passed  by,  cried  out,  and  when 
the  multitude  rebuked  them  they  would  not 
hold  their  peace,  but  "  cried  out  the  more, 
saying.  Have  mercy  on  ua,  0  Lord,  thou  Son  of 
David"  (Matt.  xx.  31).  Others,  it  may  be,  not 
less  anxious  and  confiding,  were  more  bashful 
and  retiring.  The  centurion,  whose  servant  was 
sick,  believing  strongly  in  the  power  of  Jesus, 
and  deeply  impressed  with  his  own  unworthiness 
to  receive  Jesus  under  his  roof,  beseeched  him 
to  go  no  farther,  but  only  to  speak  the  word, 
when  his  servant  would  be  healed.  The  woman 
who  had  been  labouring  under  an  issue  of  blood 
so  many  years,  durst  not  venture  to  address  him, 


250 


THE  SYSTEM  IN 


but  concluded,  that  if  she  had  but  faith  to  touch 
the  hem  of  his  garment  she  might  be  instantly 
restored.  Some,  as  they  pleaded,  dwelt  upon 
the  dreadful  nature  of  their  complaint,  and  their 
cry  was  for  mercy ;  others  gave  a  fuller  expres- 
sion to  their  faith  and  confidence.  "  If  thou 
wilt,  thou  canst  make  me  clean."  "  Speak  the 
word  only,  and  my  servant  shall  be  healed." 

Such  cases  recorded  for  our  benefit  are  deeply 
instructive,  both  in  their  sameness  and  in  their 
differences.  It  is  in  much  the  same  way  that 
sinners  still  draw  nigh  to  Jesus.  They  have 
heard  of  him  w^itli  the  hearing  of  the  ear,  and 
they  have  felt,  to  a  greater  or  less  extent,  their 
need  of  him ;  some  having  had  a  deep  sense  of 
the  evil  of  sin  generally ;  others  having  felt 
acutely  the  evil  involved  in  some  particular  sin  ; 
while  a  third  class,  perhaps,  have  been  more 
alarmed  for  the  dreadful  consequences  which 
may  follow,  in  this  world  or  the  world  to  come. 
They  have  all  been  led,  too,  to  believe  in  Christ's 
power  to  save,  and  his  willingness  to  save. 
So  far  all  are  alike.  But  there  may  be  diffe- 
rences in  the  way  in  which  different  persons 
approach  him.  Some  wait  for  him  very  dili- 
gently in  the  use  of  means  ;  not  that  they  trust 
in  the  means,  but  they  look  for  him  as  they  use 
the  means,  and  are  found  standing  at  the  posts 
of  his  gates,  and  in  the  paths  which  he  is  wont 


THE  SUPERNATURAL. 


251 


to  frequent.  Others  are  almost  impatient  of 
means  ;  not  that  tliey  despise  means,  but  they 
rise  instantly  above  them,  to  Him  who  alone  can 
remove  their  maladies.  Some,  afraid  of  giving 
offence,  stand  afar  off  and  beat  upon  their  breast, 
saying — ''  God  be  merciful  to  me  a  sinner." 
Some  under  a  deep  sense  of  sin,  and  an  awful 
fear  of  the  wrath  of  God,  cry  out  in  terrible 
earnestness  for  mercy ;  others  enter  at  once  into 
the  enjoyment  of  peace.  Some  give  a  fuller  ex- 
pression to  their  sense  of  sin,  and  their  fear  of 
hell ;  others,  all  along,  give  a  higher  place  to  the 
outpourings  of  confidence  and  love.  But  what- 
ever be  the  lesser  differences,  they  all  come  to 
Him,  of  whom  they  are  sure  that  he  can  and  will 
heal  their  maladies. 

The  manner  in  which  Jesus  healed  diseases 
is  typical  of  the  way  in  which  he  saves  and 
sanctifies.  In  the  case  of  all  the  cure  was 
effected  by  the  power  of  Jesus ;  but  there  was 
a  diversity  in  the  manner  of  his  action.  Some- 
times he  answered  the  cry  of  distress  at  once — "  I 
will  be  thou  clean,"  and  immediately  the  disease 
was  removed.  At  other  times  there  was  delay 
before  the  prayer  w^as  granted  :  thus  the  woman 
of  Canaan  had  to  submit  to  repeated  refusals, 
and  had  to  put  up  repeated  requests,  ere  the 
gracious  words  were  addressed  to  her — "  Be  it 
unto  thee  even  as  thou  wilt"  (Mat.  xv.  21 — 28). 


252 


THE  SYSTEM  IN 


In  some  cases  he  granted  the  request  without 
requiring  the  person  to  undertake  any  work,  or 
undergo  any  process ;  he  speaks  the  word  and 
the  cure  is  effected.  In  other  cases  a  step  has  to 
be  taken,  a  means  used,  an  operation  performed. 
Thus  he  said  to  the  ten  lepers,  Go  shew  your- 
seh^es  unto  the  priests,  and  it  was  *'  as  they  went 
they  were  cleansed"  (Luke  xvii.  14).  When  they 
brought  to  him  the  man  with  an  impediment  in 
his  speech,  "  he  took  him  aside  from  the  multi- 
tude, and  put  his  fingers  into  his  ears,  and  he 
spit,  and  touched  his  tongue ;  and  looking  up  to 
heaven,  he  sighed,  and  saith  unto  him,  Ephpha- 
tha,  that  is,  be  opened,  and  straightway  his  ears 
were  opened,  and  the  string  of  his  tongue  was 
loosed,  and  he  spake  plain"  (Mark  vii.  32 — 35). 
It  was  thus,  too,  that  he  acted  towards  the  bhnd 
man  of  Bethsaida.  "  He  took  the  blind  man  by 
the  hand,  and  led  him  out  of  the  town  ;  and 
when  he  had  spit  on  his  eyes,  and  put  his  hands 
on  him,  he  asked  him  if  he  saw  ought  ?  And  he 
looked  up,  and  said,  '  I  see  men  as  trees  walking.' 
After  that  he  put  his  hands  again  upon  his  eyes, 
and  made  him  look  up;  and  he  was  restored, 
and  saw  every  man  clearly"  (Mark  viii.  22 — 25). 
On  another  occasion  he  used  a  more  elaborate 
means,  but  still  not  a  process  of  itself  fitted  to 
effect  the  end.  In  curing  a  blind  man  "he  spat 
on  the  ground,  and  made  clay  of  the  spittle,  and 


THE  SUPEEN^HTUEAL.  2o3 

be  anointed  the  eyes  of  the  blind  man  with  tbe 
clay,  and  said  unto  bim,  Go,  wash  in  tbe  pool  of 
Siloam  (wbicb  is,  by  interpretation.  Sent);  be 
went  bis  way,  tberefore,  and  wasbed,  and  came 
seeing"  (Jobn  ix.  G,  7).  I  bebeve  tbat  tbere  is 
a  like  sameness,  and  a  like  diversity  in  tbe  man- 
ner in  wbicb  God  converts  tbe  sinner.  Some- 
times be  does  tbe  work  at  once,  in  tbe  fulness 
of  bis  grace.  In  otber  cases  be  delays  granting 
tbe  prayer  of  tbe  anxious  inquirer ;  not  tbat  be 
would  make  bim  cease  from  prayer,  but  be  would 
tbereby  make  bim  plead  more  earnestly.  Some- 
times he  seems  to  require  nothing  to  be  done ;  on 
other  occasions  he  bids  bim  go  and  do  this  and 
do  that,  and  as  he  does  it  tbe  cure  is  performed. 
"  Tbere  are  diversities  of  gifts,  but  the  same  spirit; 
and  there  are  differences  of  administration,  but 
the  same  Lord  ;  and  tbere  are  diversities  of  ope- 
rations, but  it  is  the  same  God  which  worketh  all 
in  all." 

The  effect  produced  is  always  health  and  acti- 
vity. When  Jesus  put  forth  bis  power,  the  eye 
which  had  been  blind  saw ;  the  ear  which  had 
been  deaf  heard ;  he  who  had  been  sick  arose ; 
he  who  had  been  leprous  had  his  flesh  made 
fresh  and  whole  ;  he  who  had  been  torn  with 
demons,  sat  at  the  feet  of  bis  deliverer  clothed  and 
in  bis  right  mind.  It  is  the  same  when  the  soul 
is  converted  and  sanctified.     The  organs  wbicb 


254  THE  SYSTEM  IN 

had  been  distempered  are  made  whole ;  the 
functions  that  had  been  disturbed  act  aright; 
and  with  the  hfe  there  will  be  activity — activity 
in  the  service  of  God,  activity  in  doing  good, 
activity  in  relieving  distress,  in  lessening  prevail- 
ing sins,  and  in  promoting  the  extension  of  the 
Redeemer's  kingdom.  When  the  fever  of 
Peter's  wdfe's  mother  was  subdued,  she  "  arose 
and  ministered"  to  Jesus.  Those  that  w^ere 
brought  to  Christ  on  couches,  he  sent  away 
bearing  their  couches  by  means  of  the  strength 
imparted  to  them.  Those  who  are  brought  to 
Christ  lame,  he  sends  away  leaping,  and  exer- 
cising and  invigorating  the  powers  they  have  re- 
ceived in  running  in  the  ways  of  his  command- 
ments. Those  who  come  to  Christ  blind,  he 
sends  away  beholding  and  admiring  the  glory  of 
his  person  and  his  w^orks.  Those  who  come  to 
Christ  dum.b,  he  sends  away  with  their  tongues 
loosed,  and  exercising  their  newly  acquired  gifts 
in  singing  his  praises. 

If  we  had  been  privileged  to  accompany  Jesus 
in  some  of  his  earthly  journeys,  what  a  glorious 
sight  would  we  have  seen, — not,  indeed,  such  as 
this  world  wonders  at  and  admires,  when  it  ap- 
plauds the  warrior  cutting  down  and  destroying 
the  strong  and  healthy  men  before  him, — w^e 
would  have  witnessed  a  very  different,  but  a  far 
grander  scene.    We  should  have  seen  before  him, 


THE  SUPEJINATURAL.  20  0 

iis  lie  was  about  to  pass,  the  road  covered  with 
couches,  with  the  sick  Liid  out  upon  them ;  and 
the  dumb,  when  they  coukl  not  speak,  striving  to 
give  expression  to  their  woes  by  their  earnest 
struggles  ;  and  the  blind,  when  they  could  not 
see,  crying  to  be  taken  to  him.  This  was  the 
scene  before  him  ;  and  behind  him,  after  he  had 
passed,  were  the  sick  bearing  away  their  couches, 
and  the  lame  leaping  like  the  harts,  and  the 
dumb  singing  his  praises,  and  the  bhnd  looking 
after  him  with  joyful  eyes,  and  the  lunatic  in 
their  right  minds,  and  those  lately  dead  in  the 
embraces  of  their  friends.  These  were  the 
effects  which  followed  Christ's  visits  wherever  he 
went.  And  he  is  Jesus  Christ,  the  same  yester- 
day, to-day,  and  forever.  His  office  is  still  to 
seek  and  to  save  that  which  was  lost.  He  is  in 
this  world  now  by  his  Spirit,  as  he  once  was  by 
his  bodily  presence.  True,  he  is  not  to  be  dis- 
cerned by  any  pomp  or  external  splendour  ;  ''  the 
kingdom  of  God  cometh  not  with  observation." 
But,  by  the  eye  of  faith,  we  may  discern  him  still 
going  about  in  our  world,  and  continually  doing- 
good.  Before  him  are  persons  inflicted  with  all 
manner  of  spiritual  maladies  : — some  imder  the 
power  of  wild  passion,  by  which  they  are  led 
captive  at  pleasure ;  some  covered  all  over  with 
the  leprosy  of  vice  ;  all  of  them  blind  to  the  per- 
ception of  spiritual  beauty,  and  deaf  to  the  voice 


256  THE  SYSTEM  IN 

of  God  addressed  to  them.  Wherever  Christ  goes 
the  way  is  strewn  with  such ;  and  wherever  he 
goes  he  leaves  behind  him  the  traces  of  his  pre- 
sence. Before  him,  as  he  marches  through  our 
world,  are  the  hhnd,  the  deaf,  the  dying,  and  the 
dead  ;  and  behind  him  are  the  seeing,  the  hear- 
ing, the  living,  the  lively,  and  the  loving.  '*The 
Spirit  of  the  Lord  God  is  upon  me  ;  because  the 
Lord  hath  anointed  me  to  preach  good  tidings 
unto  the  meek  :  he  hath  sent  me  to  bind  up  the 
broken-hearted,  to  proclaim  liberty  to  the  cap- 
tive, and  the  opening  of  the  prison  to  them  that 
are  bound ;  to  proclaim  the  acceptable  year  of 
the  Lord." 


SECT.  YI.— THE  SYSTEM  OF  DOCTRINE. 

The  mind  of  man  begins  its  intelligent  acts, 
not  with  the  general  and  the  abstract,  but  with 
the  singular  and  the  concrete  ;  not  with  prin- 
ciples and  with  qualities,  but  with  individual 
objects  as  they  present  themselves,  and  in  the 
exercise  of  their  properties.  The  boy  does  not 
set  out  in  his  mental  activities  with  speculating 
like  a  logician  about  man  and  his  rationality  and 
responsibility ;  but  he  forms  a  familiar  acquaint- 
ance with  his  nurse,  and  his  mother,  and  his 
father,  and  he  feels  the  force  of  a  command  as 


THE  SUPERNATUEAL.  257 

uttered  by  them,  and  his  first  reasoning  may  be 
to  the  effect,  that  if  he  would  obtain  a  gift  from 
them,  he  shouid  make  known  his  wants  by  some 
audible  symbol.  When  this  same  boy  begins 
to  exercise  his  faculties  about  religion,  which  he 
may  be  led  to  do  in  very  early  life,  he  does  not 
set  out  with  abstract  doctrines  about  God  and 
his  attributes  ;  but,  if  he  is  blessed  with  Chris- 
tian parents,  he  commences  with  an  apprehen- 
sion of  God  as  living  and  loving  and  acting,  and 
of  Jesus  Christ  as  suffering  and  dying  on  earth, 
and  now  up  in  the  heavens  ready  to  do  good  to 
him  and  to  all.  It  is  as  persons  advance  in  life 
and  in  intelligence,  that  they  learn  to  compre- 
hend and  admire  the  separate  qualities  that  meet 
in  the  individual  person,  and  the  general  rule 
wdiich  brings  the  miscellaneous  objects  into  a 
unity  of  view  and  conception.  The  abstract 
principle,  and  the  general  rule,  w4ien  they  are 
apprehended,  keep  the  intellect  steady,  and  they 
guard  it  from  much  seductive  error,  into  wdiich 
those  fall  who  mistake  the  accidental  for  the 
universal.  It  should  be  added,  that  this  good 
is  gained  only  when  the  abstractions  and  gene- 
ralizations have  been  properly  made ;  for  we 
may  be  landed  in  confusion  and  in  very  fatal 
errors  if  the  facts  Iiave  been  mutilated  in  the 
logical  process,  or  the  law  be  any  thing  more 
than  a  generalization  of  the  individual  cases. 

R 


258  TEE  SYSTEM  Ilf 

The  great  body  of  mankind  do  not  much  reUsh 
highly  generahzed  laws  or  abstract  dogmas  ;  they 
understand  the  principle  best  when  it  comes 
to  them  as  an  exemplification — they  prefer  the 
living  being  to  the  bony  skeleton.  This  is  the 
case  with  the  young ;  with  not  only  children,  but 
young  men  and  maidens  who  compose  so  large  a 
portion  of  every  community;  with  the  uncivihzed 
who,  even  at  this  day,  constitute  by  far  the  greater 
number  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  earth ;  with,  I 
believe,  even  the  majority  of  the  cultivated  and 
refined,  who  turn  wdth  more  eagerness  to  the 
tale  in  our  libraries  than  to  the  scientific  or 
philosophic  treatise.  In  conformity  with  all 
this,  we  find  doctrinal  propositions  and  refined 
distinctions  constituting  a  comparatively  small 
part  of  Scripture,  wdiich  instructs  us  more  fre- 
quently by  narratives,  poems,  precepts,  prophe- 
cies, symbols,  threatenings,  judgments,  promises, 
parables,  and  examples.  But  all  who  can  under- 
stand it  are  the  better  of  having  the  rule  as  w^ell 
as  the  illustration  ;  and  there  are  thinking  minds 
in  all  ages  and  states  of  society,  and  grades  of 
life,  wdiich  can  apprehend  general  truths  and 
profit  by  them,  and  the  number  of  persons 
craving  for  such  instruction  increases  rapidly  as 
education  advances ;  and  so  we  have  doctrinal 
statements  here  and  there  in  all  the  Scriptures, 
but   more   especially  in   the   Epistles  of  Paul, 


I 


TEE  SUFERYATURAL.  259 

written  when  revealed  truth  was  addressed  to 
those  whose  minds  had  heen  cuhivated  hy  Greek 
hterature  and  philosophy. 

There  is,  undouhtedly,  a  system  of  doctrine 
underlying  all  the  scattered,  and  the  at  times 
apparently  isolated,  revelations  of  the  will  of 
God;  underlying  the  whole  ordinances  and  dis- 
pensations of  Scripture,  the  very  history  and 
poetry,  the  expostulation  and  exhortation.  Paul 
speaks  of  the  Romans  as  obeying  the  type  of 
doctrine  which  was  delivered  unto  them  (Rom. 
vi.  7),  and  exhorts  Timothy  to  hold  fast  the 
under-type  of  sound  words  which  he  had  heard 
(2  Tim.  i.  13).  It  is  not  needful  that  every, 
private  Christian  should  have  a  full  compre- 
hension of  this  system,  or  be  able  to  expound  it 
in  categorical  propositions.  Many  have  caught 
its  spirit,  and  been  able  practically  to  conform  to 
it,  without  knowing  it  speculatively;  just  as  the 
great  mass  of  mankind  can  so  far  accommodate 
themselves  to  natural  law  without  knowing:  it 
scientifically — are  quite  aware,  for  example,  that 
a  stone  will  fall  to  the  ground,  though  they 
are  entirely  ignorant  of  Newton's  law  of  uni- 
versal gravitation.  But  there  is  a  set  of  con- 
nected principles  binding  the  whole  series  of 
supernatural  dispensations  and  the  scattered 
declarations  of  the  Word,  just  as  there  is  a 
Divine  idea  or  plan  running  through  the  whole 


2G0 


TEE  SYSTEM  IN 


mundane  system,  through  all  its  stellar  move- 
ments and  organic  forms.  By  a  careful  and 
cautious  inquisition  of  nature  we  can  make  it 
reveal  some  of  its  secret  machinery ;  and  we  are 
quite  sure  that  w^e  have  discovered  not  a  few  of 
the  laws  of  the  world,  though  we  should  never 
pretend  that  we  have  found  out  all  its  laws  or 
its  ultimate  laws.  By  a  like  reverent  study  of 
the  revelations  of  God  we  may  rise  to  very  en- 
larged conceptions  of  the  plan  of  redemption  ; 
and  w^e  may  be  quite  sure  that  these  are  sub- 
stantially correct ;  though  we  should  ever  bew^are 
of  stating  or  averring  that  w^e  have  embraced  the 
whole  truth  in  our  systems.  We  are  greatly 
aided  in  this  by  those  generahzed  statements, 
combinino*  a  vast  number  of   other   and   more 

o 

particular  statements  into  one,  which  are  pre- 
sented every  where  in  the  Word,  but  become 
more  numerous  in  the  later  Scriptures. 

The  improper  and  excessive  application  of 
the  forms  of  human  logic  (and  this  often  a  very 
doubtful  and  technical  logic)  to  the  expression 
of  Divine  truth,  has  tempted  many  in  our  day 
to  turn  away  with  strong  distaste  from  all  sys- 
tematic or  dogmatic  theology.  This  I  regard 
as  a  most  unw^arranted  reaction,  from  the  exces- 
sive refinements  and  minute  distinctions  of  the 
scholastic  and  of  certain  portions  of  the  puritan 
theology.     I   admit,   at   once,    that  the  human 


THE  S UPERXA  TURA L. 


2(Jl 


mind  cannot  systematize  all  spiritual  truth,  just 
as  it  cannot  arrange  all  natural  truth.  Those 
divines  shew  their  ignorance  and  presumption, 
and  not  their  knowledge  or  wisdom,  who  profess 
to  give  us  the  whole  system  or  hody  of  divinity. 
It  hath  not  entered  into  the  mind  of  man  to 
conceive  the  hody  of  divine  truth  in  its  vast 
dimensions  ;  and  certainly  no  one  should  attempt 
to  give  a  full  portraiture,  so  as  to  delineate  all 
its  significant  features,  and  the  iridescent  play 
of  feeling  on  them,  and  its  agile  but  complex 
movements.  I  doubt  much  whether  we  have 
attained  a  full  comprehension  of  any  one  truth 
of  revelation  or  of  nature  ;  and  preposterous  it 
is,  in  the  extreme,  for  any  one  to  affirm  that  he 
had  mastered  all  truth.  An  inspired  apostle 
acknowledges,  "  We  know  in  part,  and  we  pro- 
phesy in  part."  But  while  we  know  only  in 
part  we  do  know  in  part,  and  prophets  have 
prophesied  in  part.  By  the  ordinary  exercise 
of  our  observational  and  reflecting  faculties, 
we  can  discover  analogies,  affinities,  and  con- 
nexions, and  we  can  generalize  what  we  notice, 
and  express  the  laws  which  we  reach;  but  all 
the  while  we  should  not  dogmatically  affirm  that 
we  have  risen  to  the  ultimate  or  the  absolute 
truth.  Everywhere  have  we  exemplifications  so 
clear  an  1  simple,  that  they  enable  us  at  once  to 
catch  the  rule  or  principle,  which  again  entitles 


262 


THE  SYSTEM  IK 


US  to  make  important  practical  applications. 
Here  and  there  do  we  see  regular  arcs  of  revolv- 
ing wheels,  from  which  we  may  calculate  the 
wiiole  circle.  Any  one  may  discern  the  general 
type  of  doctrine,  at  first  with  a  very  dim  outline, 
but  coming  out  more  and  more  distinctly  in  the 
clearer  hght.  Above  all,  we  have  in  the  Word 
of  God  itself,  and  especially  in  the  writings  of 
Paul  and  John,  doctrinal  statements  in  the  form 
of  epitomes,  or  compendious  declarations  of  vast 
sweep  and  comprehensiveness. 

I  admit  that  these  abstracts  (like  the  abstracts 
of  science)  are  felt  to  be  exceedingly  bare  and 
uninteresting  when  they  are  presented  to  a  mind 
ignorant  of  the  individual  and  the  concrete — 
indeed  they  are  scarcely  comprehensible  by  one 
who  has  not,  in  his  previous  training,  had  the 
means  of  imaging  them  and  thinking  of  them  by 
incident  or  by  symbol.  They  are  rarely  pre- 
sented to  us  in  the  early  and  preparatory  revela- 
tions, which  give  us  instead  the  example,  the 
figure,  the  parable,  the  analogy.  They  have  a 
value  when  they  follow  up  a  course  of  instruction 
conducted  by  deeds  and  symbols,  and  gather  into 
a  head,  and  express  in  a  general  law,  the  results 
of  the  whole  preceding  process  of  training,  ob- 
servation, and  thought.  Thus  employed,  they 
serve  a  purpose,  and  a  high  purpose,  to  the  church 
and   individuals.      Those   abstracts  of  cardinal 


THE  SUPERXATURAL. 


263 


truths  which  are  emhodied  in  our  creeds  and 
confessions,  are  standards  of  weight  and  measure, 
by  which  to  detect  unsound  doctrine,  and  keep 
it  from  passing  current  in  the  \dsible  churches. 
The  simple  and  clear  enunciations  presented  in 
our  catechisms  assist  the  young  to  rise  to  a  clear 
notion  of  what  they  are  expected  to  beheve ;  and 
may  serve,  in  all  their  future  lives,  to  give  a  con- 
nexion to  the  individual  truths  offered  to  them. 
The  grand  general  views  presented  in  sermons 
and  religious  treatises,  more  especially  when 
couched  in  language  borrowed  from  Scripture  or 
conceived  in  its  spirit,  may  furnish  an  elevated 
theme  of  religious  meditation ;  may  save  us  from 
theoretical  errors  and  practical  mistakes  ;  and  un- 
consciously render  our  piety  more  enlightened 
in  its  spirit  and  more  consistent  in  its  action. 

It  must  needs  be  one  of  the  labours  of  the 
theologians  of  our  day,  to  disentangle  our  syste- 
matic divinity  from  all  metaphysical  subtleties, 
from  all  antiquated  jurisprudence,  and  from  all 
logical  distinctions,  other  than  the  most  obvious 
and  natural.  This  is  a  task  which  I  would  not 
commit  to  every  one.  There  is  a  risk,  that  those 
w^ho  set  about  it  most  eagerly,  in  gathering  up 
the  tares  root  up  also  the  wheat  with  them. 
Still  it  is  a  work  in  which  those  who  are  compe- 
tent must  engage  ;  for  it  is  certain  that  "  every 
plant   which    our    heavenly    Father    hath    not 


264  THE  SYSTEM  IX 

planted  shall  be  rooted  up"  (Mat.  xv.  13) ;  and  it 
is  surely  better  that  the  encumbrances  should 
be  taken  out  of  the  Avay  by  the  friends  than  by 
the  foes  of  religion.  AYhat  could  look  more  tho- 
roughly established  than  the  cosmogony  which 
divines,  till  within  the  last  age  or  two,  were 
in  the  habit  of  drawing  from  the  earlier  chapters 
of  Genesis?  Yet  we  have  been  obliged  to  re- 
view it;  and  we  now  discover  how  many  infe- 
rences of  our  own  were  superadded  to  the  simple 
statements  of  the  Word.  Physical  science  has 
thus  given  a  reproof  and  a  lesson  to  systematic 
theology,  which  it  should  seek  to  profit  by,  in 
the  way  of  making  it  more  humble  and  less  con' 
structive  in  its  dogmas.  I  suspect  that  higher 
intelhgences  may  discover  quite  as  many  flaws  in 
our  logical  or  inferential  systems  of  doctrine,  as 
there  were  in  the  old  theological  geology.  But 
just  because  theology  must  take  down  some  of  its 
additions  which  were  supposed  to  be  buttresses, 
while  they  were  really  obstructions,  it  is  the  more 
needful  to  watch,  lest,  in  the  work  of  upturning, 
it  undermine  any  part  of  the  heavenly  temple. 
Care  also  must  be  taken,  that  in  removing  the 
old  impediments  we  do  not  allow  any  new^  logic 
or  philosophy, — be  it  the  more  imposing  theories 
of  Schleiermacher  or  Coleridge,  or  the  more 
rigid  but  negative  systems  of  Kant  or  Ha- 
miltoD, — to   take  their   place,    and   thus   accu- 


THE  S  UrERXA  TURA  L. 


;g5 


mulate  a  Herculean   task  of  elcansin<:]j  for  the 


o 


generation  tl]at#  is  to  come  after.  And  while 
we  exclude  all  inventions  of  man  from  theo- 
logy proper,  as  supposed  to  have  the  sanction 
of  inspiration,  it  would  he  infatuation  to  refuse 
to  employ,  as  an  outward  defence,  any  of  those 
well-founded  distinctions  and  apt  phrases  which 
theologians  have  called  in  to  shew  how  Divine 
truth  is  consistent  with  itself,  and  to  answer 
plausihle  ohjections.  Nor  is  there  any  reason 
why  a  philosophy  should  not  seek  to  sanctify 
itself  by  an  alliance  with  religion;  provided 
always  that  it  does  not  attempt,  like  the  great 
German  systems  of  Schelling  and  Hegel,  to 
overpower  the  simple  truths  of  the  Word ;  and 
provided,  farther,  it  does  not  so  identify  itself 
with  religion,  that  when  the  philosophy  is  seen  to 
he  a  failure,  Christianity  may  be  supposed  to  fall 
along  with  it. 

But,  without  leaning  upon  any  philosophy  ex- 
cept the  philosophy  of  good  sense,  or  any  logic 
except  the  logic  which  all  men  employ  in  every 
mental  exercise,  or  any  jurisprudence  except  that 
of  the  spontaneous  conscionce,  it  is  possible  to 
trace  a  connexion  among  many  of  the  truths  of 
the  Word,  and  to  give  them  a  suitable  expression. 
W^e  see  in  Revelation,  first  of  all,  an  eternal 
counsel  contemplating  a  manifestation  of  the 
Divine  glory — that  is,  of  the  Divine  perfections — ' 


2G6 


THE  SYSTEM  IN 


ill  providing  a  Saviour  for  man  fallen  into  sin 
and  degradation.  From  the  very  entrance  of 
transgression  into  our  world  there  are  notices  of 
him ;  and  there  are  intimations  that  he  is  to 
descend  from  human  nature,  while  yet  he  is  re- 
lated to  the  Divine  nature,  which  is  essentially 
one  and  yet  plural.  Various  anticipations  of  him 
appear;  a  symbolic  mode  of  worship  is  insti- 
tuted ;  profound  ideas  and  convictions  are  excited 
and  deepened  ;  a  special  family  is  chosen  to  pre- 
serve and  transmit  the  knowledge  and  concep- 
tions ;  and  along  with  these  a  pure  morality  in 
a  somewhat  rigid  and  ceremonial  form.  As  ages 
advance,  the  spirit  shines  more  and  more  clearly 
through  the  body  in  which  it  dwells.  In  the 
fulness  of  time  the  long-predicted  and  anticipated 
One  appears,  very  God  and  very  Man  ;  the  Ee- 
vealer  of  the  will  of  God  and  the  teacher  of  man- 
kind; the  Redeemer  who  makes  atonement  and 
who  conquers  hy  suffering  ;  the  King,  who  rides 
lowly  into  our  w^orld,  and  who  is  at  last  to  conquer 
it  all  in  the  name  of  "  truth,  and  meekness, 
and  righteousness."  We  see  that  he  is  calling 
a  people,  who  are  all  being  sanctified  by  him, 
and  are  thus  prepared  for  an  inheritance  in 
which  the  holy  shall  be  forever  separated  from 
the  unholy.  Ever  spreading  wider  and  wider  the 
boundaries  of  his  spiritual  kingdom  on  earth,  and 
reducing  the  rebelhous  elements  into  order,  his 


THE  S UPErxXA T URAL. 


2G7 


reign  shall  at  last  extend  over  the  whole  earth, 
apparently  for  a  long  succession  of  ages.  A  plan 
like  this  evidently  underlies  the  whole  super- 
natural dispensations ;  and  it  has  within  it  a  set 
of  agencies  which,  though  unseen  hecause  of 
their  depth  by  superficial  men,  have  yet,  in  fact, 
formed  the  elevations  and  depressions,  and  by 
consequence  the  whole  shape,  and  contour,  and 
aspect  of  our  world's  history. 


SECT.  VII.-THE  SYSTEM  OF  DUTY. 

There  is  evidently  a  type  of  duty  running 
through  the  whole  revelation  of  God,  and  under- 
lying all  its  particular  precepts.  It  is,  to  a 
considerable  extent,  coincident  with  a  prior  and 
a  natural  law,  imbedded  in  the  very  constitution 
of  man.  Not  that  we  are  to  look  on  the  law 
written  on  the  heart  of  man  as  rendering  the 
law  written  in  the  Word  unnecessary.  For, 
first  the  law  of  conscience  is  felt  by  the  great 
body  of  mankind  to  be  very  vague  in  its  instruc- 
tions. The  inscription  may  at  first  have  been 
sharp  and  clear,  as  it  must  certainly  have  been 
deep,  to  outstand  all  that  man  has  passed 
through,  as  the  soul  has  been  swept  over  by  sin 
as  by  a  flood.  In  fact,  the  moral  power  in  man 
exists  very  much  in  the  form  of  a  capacity  and  a 


THE  SYSTEM  IX 


tendency  rather  than  an  energy,  and  it  needs 
a  favourable  training  to  bring  it  into  healthy 
exercise  ;  it  needs  a  revealed  law  applied  to  it 
to  make  the  invisible  writing  legible.  The 
advanced  conscience  of  these  times  is,  no  doubt, 
the  outgrowth  of  native  principle,  otherwise  cir- 
cumstances could  not  call  it  out ;  still  it  is  also  a 
growth  produced  by  external  stimuli,  and  chiefly 
by  the  light  which  has  been  diffused  every  where 
throughout  our  atmosphere  by  a  heavenly  lumi- 
nary— many  in  our  cloudy  world  never  perceiving 
the  source  from  which  it  comes. 

Much  of  what  is  revealed,  it  may  be  admitted, 
is  a  republication  of  the  law  of  nature — it  being 
understood,  however,  that  what  is  now  published 
clearly  had  been  published  only  obscurely  before. 
We  have  such  a  law  in  the  Old  Testament, 
where,  however,  it  appears  in  a  somewhat  rigid 
form  and  with  a  considerably  stern  look,  and 
without  those  more  loving  features  which  attract 
us  in  the  New  Testament ;  we  hear  it  spoken  in 
the  midst  of  flames,  we  see  it  written  on  stone, 
and  all  its  commandments  are  prohibitive.  It  is 
in  the  New  Testament, — more  especially  in  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount,  and  other  discourses  of 
our  Lord,  and  in  portions  ■  f  the  Epistles, — that 
we  see  what  is  the  sj^irit  of  the  Law,  and  what 
the  principle  which  underlies  it.  "  Thou  shalt 
love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and 


i 


THE  SUrERNATURAL. 


2G9 


^vitll  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy  mind.  This 
is  the  first  and  great  commandment.  And  the 
second  is  like  unto  it,  thou  shalt  love  thy  neigh- 
bour as  thyself.  On  these  two  commandments 
hang  all  the  law  and  the  prophets"  (Matt.  xxii. 
37 — 40).  In  favour  of  this  law  the  natural 
conscience  gives  its  testimony;  it  is  the  fully 
written  and  preserved  copy,  which  enables  us  to 
read  the  dimmed  and  defaced  one,  which,  how- 
ever, suffices  to  shew  that  the  revealed  law 
corresponds  to  the  natural  and  original  one. 

But  in  this  law  revealed  in  the  Bible  there  is 
something  beyond  what  is  inthe  natural  law  of  con- 
science, that  which  is  superinduced  being  all  the 
while  in  thorough  harmony  with  wdiat  is  written 
on  our  nature.  There  is,  for  example,  a  gracious 
hiw  of  the  Sabbath,  providing  periodical  rest  for  a 
body  which  has  to  toil,  and  also  securing,  as  still 
more  important,  indeed  essential  to  the  sustain- 
ing of  religion  in  a  land,  a  season  for  the  acqui- 
sition of  religious  knowledge,  and  for  religious 
education  and  training  generally  among  young 
and  old,  and  a  time  of  blessed  quiet  in  which  the 
soul  may  hold  undistracted  communion  with  God. 
But  the  specialty  of  the  code  of  duty  revealed 
in  the  Bible  lies  in  its  clearly  announcing 
what  we  ought  to  do,  as  sinners  turning  from 
sin,  and  returning  to  God.  Even  at  this  point, 
the  revealed  law  has  something  to  appeal  to  in 


270  THE  SYSTEM  IN 

the  natural  conscience,  which  is   prepared   to 
admit  that  man  has  sinned,  and  that  he  ought  to 
repent  and  amend.      But  then  the  conscience 
has   no   special  information  nor  instruction,  no 
assurance  or  promise  for  the  returning  sinner, 
and  the  reason  is,  that  it  knows  of  no  method  of 
reconcilement  with   God.     It  is  upon  the  me- 
diatorial work  made  known  hy  the  supernatural 
revelation,  that  all  the  evangelical  duties  proceed, 
and  these  duties  are  all  graces — such  as  faith, 
and   repentance,  and  meekness,  and  patience, 
and  the  love  of  a  reconciled  heart.     As  to  repen- 
tance, the  natural  conscience  gives  only  impulses, 
compunctions,  fears,   which    indeed   would  stir 
up  action,  but  it  utters  no  certain  sound  as  to 
what  should  be  the  course  of  conduct  pursued ; 
and  the  confused  convictions  are    apt  to   flow 
out  in  self-imposed  mortifications  and  penances, 
which  are  felt,  after  they  have  been  gone  through, 
to  be  no  atonement  for  the  transgression,  and  so 
bring  no  peace,  but  rather  restlessness,  to  the 
roused  spirit.     As  to  faith,  the  natural  conscience 
has  no  object  to  reveal  except  God  the  gover- 
nor and  judge,  no   being  standing  in    such   a 
relation  towards  us,   as  to  draw  forth  and  gain 
and  fix  our  confidence.     Instead  of  gentleness, 
forbearance,  patience,  the  natural  feelings  raised 
by    the    accusings    of  the    moral    avenger,    are 
anxiety,  doubt,  fretfulness,  and  resentment.     No 


I 


THE  SUPERNATUEAL.  271 

dcfiibt,  the  ethical  prompter  within  announces 
that  we  ought  to  love,  but  scarcely  holds  out  any 
incitements  to  draw  our  hearts  towards  a  God 
who  hates  sin,  hut  of  whom  we  know  not  how 
he  forgives  sin,  or  whether  he  forgives  it.  It  is 
certain  that  there  is  no  room,  no  motive,  in 
natural  religion  for  what  is  called  evangelical 
love — the  love  which  cleaves  to  God  as  a  recon- 
ciled God  in  Christ ;  the  love  which  makes  the 
Christian  feel  that,  as  having  received  mercy 
himself,  he  should  be  merciful  to  others ;  that,  as 
having  heard  the  joyful  sound  himself,  he  should 
hasten  to  have  it  rung  in  the  hearing  of  all 
others,  and  particularly  of  the  poor,  the  igno- 
rant, and  the  outcast.  There  is  here  spread  out 
to  our  view  a  code  of  duties,  or  rather  a  group  of 
graces,  altogether  peculiar  to  revealed  religion, 
as  founded  and  proceeding  upon  the  revelation 
of  a  Divine  Messenger  who  comes  wdtli  overtures 
of  peace  to  sinners. 


SECT.  VIII.— THE   SYSTEM  OF  MEANS. 

When  man  would  secure  any  natural  blessing, 
he  uses  means.  If  he  would  reap,  he  must  sow — 
that  is,  he  must  scatter  in  order  to  gather. 
When  he  would  obtain  a  competent  share  of  the 
blessings  of  this  world,  he  is  diligent  in  his  call- 


272  THE  SYSTEM  IN 

ing.  When  lie  would  retacli  a  higher  knowledge, 
he  begins  by  mastering  the  elements.  If  he 
would  get  love,  he  must  begin  by  giving  love. 
There  are,  in  like  manner,  means  of  obtaining 
blessings  in  the  kingdom  of  grace ;  here,  too, 
he  who  would  reap  must  sow — he  who  would  rise 
to  sight  must  begin  by  exercising  faith.  The 
means  by  which  w^e  obtain  the  common  bless- 
ings are,  in  both  kingdoms,  very  simple  and  very 
obvious;  the  most  careless  may  discover  them, 
a  child  may  understand  them.  In  the  spiritual 
kingdom,  he  who  would  obtaiq  the  blessings  must 
ask  them  from  Him  wdio  dispenses  them.  He 
who  w^ould  acquire  Divine  knowledge  must  read 
the  lesson  book  which  the  great  Prophet  of  the 
Church  has  written,  and  hear  those  wdio  have 
been  appointed  to  expound  it.  There  are  sym- 
bols of  entrance  into  communion  with  Christ, 
and  symbols  of  growth  in  the  Divine  life,  which 
all  will  be  disposed  practically  to  value  w^ho 
aspire  after  admission  into  the  kingdom  or 
advancement  in  it.  Those  who  w^ould  obtain 
the  spiritual  grace  will  cherish  trust  and  love 
tow^ards  Him  wdio  is  the  fountain  of  grace. 

"  If  a  flower 
Were  thrown  j^ou  out  of  heaven  at  intervals, 

You'd  soon  attain  to  a  trick  of  looking  up." 


But  there  are  better  gilts  throvai  out  from  heaven 


THE  SUPERNATURAL.  273 

than  flowers ;   and  those  who  wish  and  wait  for 
them  acquire  an  upward,  a  heavenward  look. 

In  hoth,  the  means  are  usually  crowned  with 
success.  He  who  continues  in  the  use  of  them, 
sooner  or  later  secures  the  hlessing.  But  in 
neither  are  they  certainly  successful.  He  who 
has  sown  may  not  reap  on  the  lirst  harvest,  nor 
is  he  sure  of  reaping  every  harvest.  The  diligent 
man  may  he  disappointed  in  some  of  the  plans 
which  he  has  devised  with  greatest  wisdom,  and 
pursued  with  greatest  energy.  In  like  manner, 
he  who  reads  and  prays  may  not  get  the  spiritual 
blessing  the  moment  he  asks,  nor  always  when 
he  asks.  In  both  kingdoms,  God  has  given  suf- 
ficient inducement  to  the  use  of  means ;  but  in 
both  he  has  kept  the  issue  in  his  own  hands, 
that  all  men,  and  all  Christians  in  particular, 
may  feel  their  dependence,  on  him. 

But,  with  the  general  correspondence  there  is 
a  curious  point  of  difference,  which  illustrates  very 
strikingly  God's  method  of  accomplishing  the 
same  end  by  a  difference  of  means.  In  both  he 
has  secured  diligence ;  in  both  he  has  shewn  that 
we  are,  after  all,  dependent  on  him.  But,  while 
these  purposes  are  secured  in  both  cases,  there  is 
this  difference,  that,  in  the  kingdom  of  nature,  the 
means  accomplish  their  end  by  their  own  natural 
power,  and  fail  only  by  cross  arrangements  of  Pro- 
vidence which  thwart  their  action  and  disappoint 

s 


274  THE  SYSTEM  IN 

their  issue ;  while,  in  the  kingdom  of  grace,  the 
means  cannot  accompUsh  the  result,  except  by  the 
immediate  indwelling  and  operation  of  the  Spirit 
of  God.  In  the  secular  affairs  of  life,  it  is  of  all 
things  essential  that  men  use  the  means,  in  order 
that  the  economy  of  this  world  may  move  on,  and 
that  human  activity  may  supply  what  mankind 
need  ;  and  all  this  must  be  done,  whether  men 
sinfully  trust  in  the  means,  or  are  made  to  see 
that  they  need  the  blessing  of  heaven  upon  them. 
But,  in  the  kingdom  of  grace  the  end  throughout 
is  a  spiritual  one,  and  men  must  not  be  allowed 
to  trust  in  the  mere  ceremonial,  in  the  opus  oper- 
atwn ;  the  Christian  must  be  taught  throughout 
that  the  whole  work  is  of  God,  and  that  trust  in 
him  is  an  end,  as  well  as  a  means,  in  \he  spiritual 
economy. 


SECT.  IX.— THE  SYSTEM  OF  THE  DISPENSATION  OF  GRACE. 

Not  only  is  there  system  in  the  objective  truths 
and  ordinances  of  God,  there  is  method  in  the 
manner  in  which  the  grace  of  the  Spirit  is  dis- 
pensed. 

There  is  plan  in  the  manner  in  which  it  is 
imparted  to  every  individual  believer.  It  is  an 
active  element,  introduced  among  old  and  oppos- 
ing elements  also  active.     It  is  hkened  to  leaven 


THE  S  UPERXA  TURAL.  275 

deposited  in  the  mass  and  feraienting  it.     It  is 
ordinarily  obtained  in  the   use  of  means,  thus 
rendering  those  who  would  secure  it  watchful 
and  vigilant.     From  the  very  first,  it  meets  with 
obstacles  from   the   corrupt   ingredients   among 
which  it  is  introduced.     Commonly  there  is  a 
great  chafing  of  spirit   as  convictions  lash    the 
soul— hke   as   w^inds  do  the  ocean.      Often   is 
there  a  violent  struggle  in  the  throes  of  the  new 
bnth,    as    pride,    and     self-righteousness,    and 
cherished  lusts,   oppose  the   entrance  of  faith, 
and    self-denial,    and    love— and    are    defeated. 
The  ocean,  even  when  the  waves  are  high,  never 
seems  to  rage  in  all  its  finy  except  at  the  shore 
where  it  is  ojDposed  by  barriers.     The    deepest 
stream  will  flow  along  softly,  and  almost  imper- 
ceptibly, as  long  as  it  runs  in  a  smoothly-worn 
channel ;    but   let  there  be   opposing  rocks   or 
cliffs,  which  dash  it  from  one  to  another,  and 
it  is  forthwith   lashed  into   foam.     It  is  from  a 
like  cause  that  Satan  and  our  evil  propensities 
never  rage  so  furiously  as  when  the  grace  of 
God,  like  a  strong  and  immovable  rock,  opposes 
itself  to  the  proud  waves  of  the  passions.     There 
is  more  or  less  of  a  struggle  during  the  whole 
life  of  the   Christian.     Hence,  the  spiritual  hfe 
in  the  soul  of  man  has  ever  been  felt  to  be  a 
work,  in   which   toil   has   to    be    undergone   in 
diggmg  and  building,  and  a  warfare,  in  which 


276  TEE  SYSTEM  IN 

there  are  many  foes  to  contend  against.  *'  The 
flesh  kisteth  against  the  spirit,  and  the  spirit 
against  the  flesh,  and  these  are  contrary  the  one 
to  the  other."  This  is  a  universal  description 
of  the  behever's  experience.  Tiie  feehngs  of 
the  writers  of  the  Psalms  are  the  same  as 
those  of  the  apostles  ;  there  is  the  same  wrest- 
ling between  two  opposite  principles,  the  same 
fears  and  hopes,  the  same  anxieties  and  encou- 
ragements, the  same  defeats  and  conquests. 
Read  the  Confessions  of  Augustine,  the  lives  or 
letters  of  the  Reformers,  and  the  diaries  of  later 
Christians,  and  there  is  the  same  sorrowing  over 
a  remainder  of  sin,  with  which  there  is  a  contest 
kept  up,  and  which  they  hope  in  the  end  to 
conquer.  It  is  very  interesting,  and  instructive 
withal,  to  observe  this  uniformity  of  Christian 
experience  ;  to  observe  believers  separated  from 
each  other  by  so  many  ages,  and  living  in  such 
different  states  of  society,  so  much  the  same  in 
their  feelings  and  in  their  character.  We  per- 
ceive that  rehgion  is  alike  in  all  ages, — the 
same  grace  of  God  acting  on  the  same  perverse 
nature. 

But  in.  this  warfare,  how^ever  doubtful  the 
contest  may  seem  at  times  to  be,  the  spiritual 
power  is  all  along  the  stronger,  and  will  at  last 
be  seen  to  be  so,  as  it  gives  peace  of  conscience 
and  peace  of  heart,  as  it  diffuses  inw^ard  satisfac- 


/ 


THE  S  UPERXA  TURAL.  277 

tion,  as  it  puts  down  heart  corruption,  as  it 
elevates  the  whole  motives  of  life  and  ends  of 
being,  as  it  expands  and  warms  the  heart  by  a 
self-forgetting  love.  It  is  now  seen  clearly  by 
the  Christian  that  what  is  thus  planted  within 
him  is  not  a  passing  impulse,  a  floating  fancy, 
a  notion  springing  spontaneously,  which  may 
disappear  as  speedily,  but  is  a  system ;  he  cahs 
it  a  principle,  a  life— -it  is  a  seed  becoming  a 
plant,  a  birth  maturing  into  a  full  grown  being. 
There  is  evidently  a  rationale  in  it  throughout, 
though  the  man  may  not  be  able  to  discover  all 
its  laws  and  its  reasons ;  and  he  piously  ascribes 
the  whole  to  the  sovereignty  of  God,  by  which 
he  does  not  mean  the  arbitrariness  of  God,  or  the 
capriciousness  of  God,  but  the  inscrutable  wis- 
dom of  God,  and  the  goodness  of  God,  who  does 
all  things  wisely  and  well,  but  without  conde- 
scending to  submit  his  reasons  to  us.  It  is  part 
of  this  wise  system,  that  the  work  of  grace  is  a 
progressive  one.  Not  that  the  believer  is  every 
instant  advanchig  in  the  Divine  life.  Alas,  there 
are  times  when  he  feels  as  if  all  spiritual  life 
within  were  withering  and  dying.  But  even 
then  he  is  like  the  plant  in  winter,  with  some  life 
and  substance,  ready  for  the  first  genial  approach 
of  spring,  as  "  a  teil  plant  and  as  an  oak,  whose 
substance  is  in  them  when  they  cast  their  leaves, 
so  the  holy  seed  shall  be  the  substance  thereof," 


278 


TEE  SYSTEM  IN 


and  the  believer  on  the  whole  is  making  pro- 
gress, just  as  the  healthy  and  vigorous  tree  does, 
from  year  to  year.  His  course  is  like  that  of  a 
streami,  it  may  at  times  be  a  crooked  and  per- 
plexed one,  at  times  it  may  seem  a  backward 
one ;  but  it  is  all  the  wdiile  pursuing  its  w^ay, 
gathering  contributions  in  its  very  turnings  and 
windings,  and  widening  and  deepening  as  it 
moves  on.  The  Christian  has  often  been  com- 
pared to  a  traveller.  The  traveller,  on  his  w^ay 
to  the  summit  of  a  mountian,  may  meet  with 
deep  valleys,  down  which  he  has  to  descend,  in 
order  to  his  farther  ascent,  but  on  the  whole  he  is 
rising  higher.  So  it  is  wdth  the  believer ;  he  may 
meet  on  his  journey  with  valleys  deep  and  dark 
as  those  of  Baca,  but  on  the  wdiole  he  is  rising 
nearer  and  nearer  to  perfection,  and  as  he  mounts, 
he  breathes  a  purer  and  more  ethereal  atmos- 
phere, and  gains  a  wider  and  a  nobler  prospect. 

Comparative  anatomists  have  traced  a  curious 
general  correspondence  between  the  growth  of 
the  animal  in  the  womb,  and  the  advance  of 
animated  beings  in  the  geological  ages, — there 
being  a  progression  in  both  cases  from  the  lower 
to  the  higher,  from  the  more  simple  and  general 
to  the  more  complex  and  special.  I  suppose  that 
this  correspondence  arises  from  there  being,  in 
both  cases,  a  like  living  agency  acting  in  like 
circumstances.     However  this  may  be,  it  is  cer- 


TEE  SUPERNATURAL.  279 

tain  that  there  is  an  analogy  hetween  the  system 
of  grace  in  the  heart  of  the  individual,  and  the 
system  of  grace  in  the  world.  This  correspon- 
dence arises  from  the  life  in  the  church  being, 
liie  the  life  in  the  heart,  a  spiritual  power  in 
tie  midst  of  carnal  materials.  The  one,  like  the 
other,  is  commonly  conveyed  by  means,  the  in- 
struments in  the  case  of  the  church  being  com- 
monly men  and  women,  whose  hearts  have  been 
kindled  by  it  into  a  flame,  and  who  now  propa- 
gate the  fire.  In  both,  the  spiritual  power  is  a 
leaven  pervading  the  circumambient  mass  —  a 
plant  meeting  obstacles,  and  overcoming  them, 
and  ever,  in  the  most  unfavourable  circumstances, 
seeking  and  growing  towards  the  light.  What  a 
ferment  in  the  first  instance,  when  the  gospel 
gets  an  entrance  into  a  land;  its  disciples  are 
everywhere  maUgned,  are  often  shut  up  in  pri- 
son, or  consigned  to  the  flames.  All  along,  the 
church  while  in  the  world  is  a  diflerent  body 
from  the  world,  which  is  ever  seeking  by  threats 
or  seductions  to  drive  or  draw  it  from  its  alle- 
giance to  Christ.  In  these  circumstances  the 
church  is  often  exposed  to  severe  sufl"ering, 
which  is  allowed  to  come  upon  it  in  the  way  of 
a  chastening — which  it  deserves,  which  it  needs. 
For  how  apt  is  that  church  to  fall  asleep  when 
it  should  be  active;  or  to  trust  in  forms  and 
ecclesiastical  arrangements  when  it  should  be 


280 


THE  SYSTEM  IN 


breathing  the  hving  sj^irit ;  or  to  drop   some  of 
the  great  truths  which  have  been  committed  to 
its  care ;  or  to  neglect  certain  great  duties  lle- 
volving  on  it — as  for  ages  it  neglected  missionary 
effort ;  or  to  waste  its  energies  in  fruitless  effoi\s 
— as  in  mediaeval  times  in  architecture  and  ii 
ritual — or  as  in  these  times  in  the  wars  of  con- 
tending sects.     From  all  these  and  other  causes, 
the  church  at  large  needs  afflictions,  as  the  pri- 
vate Christian  does  ;  and  to  keep  it  from  settling 
upon  its  lees  it  is  emptied  from  vessel  to  vessel; 
and   offences   come    to    make  it  feel  where  its 
strength  lies  ;  and  heresies  spring  up  to  compel 
it  to  fall  back  more  implicitly  and  unreservedly 
upon  the  revealed  truth   of  God;    and  lest  it 
should  waste  its  energy  in  an  internal  strife,  it  is 
mad€  to  see  a  powerful  enemy  in  front.     But  in 
spite  of  all  these  persecutions,  at  times  in  conse- 
quence of  them,  it  is  making  progress.     Not  that 
it  is  ever  progressing,  or  progressing  always   at 
the  same  rate.     Its  movement  is  like  that  of  the 
ocean  by  tides  and  waves,  like  that  of  light  by 
vibrations.      "  We  see  not  yet   all   things   put 
under  him,"  but  we  see  a  living  power  at  work 
which  shall  at  last  bring  all  things  into  subjec- 
tion.    In  reference  to  his  own  personal  work  on 
earth,  Jesus  could  say  ere  he  expired — "  It  is 
finished."      He  can  say  the  same  in  regard  to 
the  work  which  he  carries  on  in  the  breasts  of 


/ 


THE  SUPERNATURAL.  281 

his  people,  till  all  sin  is  conquered — "  It  is 
finished."  He  will  at  last  he.  able  to  use  the 
same  language  in  regard  to  the  work  which  he 
is  conducting  on  earth,  till  the  knowledge  of  the 
Lord  covers  the  earth — "  It  is  finished." 


282 


THE  EVIDENCES 


CHAPTER   III. 

THE  EVIDENCES  OF  CHRISTIANITY. 

SECT.  I.— A  STUDY  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  EVIDENCES.    THE 
EVIDENCES  A  SYSTEM. 

It  was  never  intended  in  this  Treatise  to  furnish 
an  exposition  of  the  Evidences  of  Christianity; 
this  has  heen  provided  so  frequently  and  so  satis- 
factorily in  other  works  that  I  feel  I  have  nothing 
new  to  offer.  My  aim  has  been  simply  to  clear 
the  ground  of  incumbrances  and  obstructions,  so 
as  to  allow  us  to  attend  to  the  instruction : 
"  Walk  about  Zion,  and  go  round  about  her ; 
tell  the  towers  thereof.  Mark  ye  well  her 
bulwarks,  consider  her  palaces ;  that  ye  may  tell 
it  to  the  generation  following."  It  has  become 
necessary  in  these  days  to  keep  inquiring  minds 
from  starting,  after  the  manner  of  the  German 
Strauss  and  the  British  Baden  Powell,  with  the 
principle  that  everything  that  professes  to  be 
supernatural  is  to  be  regarded  as  opposed  to 
reason  and  the  inductive  philosophy.  I  have 
gained  the  end  I  had  in  view — so  far  as  apolo- 


\ 


OF  CHRISTIANITY. 


283 


getics  are  concerned — if  I  set  out  intelligent 
young  men  upon  the  study  of  the  Christian  Evi- 
dences, prepared  to  consider  the  proof  advanced 
as  if  it  were  in  favour  of  a  natural,  and  not  a  su- 
pernatural system. 

The  way  in  which  we  who  live  in  these  times 
and  countries  arrive  at  a  reasonahle  belief  in  the 
Divine  origin  of  Christianity,  does  not  differ  es- 
sentially from  the  manner  in  which  we  reach  an 
independent  conviction  of  the  existence  of  God. 
In  both  we  may  start  with  certain  ideas,  and  it 
may  be  prepossessions  and  educational  faiths;  but 
we  could  easily  lay  these  aside — and  in  these  en- 
lightened times  would  certainly  lay  them  aside — 
were  it  not  that  they  are  authorised,  sanctioned, 
and  confirmed  by  what  is  ever  pressing  itself 
upon  our  notice  : — in  the  one  case,  that  of  our 
belief  in  God,  by  internal  principles,  founding 
on  the  obvious  traces  of  order  and  adaptation  in 
the  universe;  and,  in  the  other,  that  of  our  be- 
lief in  Christ,  by  the  truths  of  the  Word,  and  the 
external  evidence  in  its  favour,  as  these  recom- 
mend themselves  to  our  moral  nature,  to  our 
felt  wants,  and  to  our  intelligence. 

Let  us  exactly  estimate  the  position  in  which 
a  thinking  youth  finds  himself  in  our  land,  in 
these  times,  when  he .  would  examine  the  Chris- 
tian rehgion  and  its  evidences.  He  has  been 
taught  that  this  religion,  professed  by  his  parents 


2S4 


THE  EVIDENCES 


and  generally  by  his  countrymen,  rich  and  poor, 
learned   and   unlearned,   has    come    from    God. 
He  has  an  acquaintance,  more  or  less  particular, 
with  the  tenets  set  forth  in  the  Scriptures  ;  and 
he  sees  the  influence  which  they  exercise  on 
society  at   large,    or   on    individuals.      He    has 
enough  to  prevent  him  from  summarily  rejecting 
Christianity,  and  to  make  him  feel  it  to  he  his 
duty  to  make  farther  inquiry  into  the  religion 
and  its  credentials.     If  he  has  ever  thought  on 
the  subject  of  evidence,  he  will  see  that,  in  all 
practical    matters,    the    proof   which    convinces 
comes  from  a  variety  of  quarters,  and  that  assent 
is   gained   by  the    concurrence   of  independent 
facts.      First,    we    may   suppose    he    considers 
candidly  the  doctrines  set  forth  in  the  written 
record,   and  he   is   constrained  to   acknowledge 
as  to  many  of  them,  that  they  are  worthy  of  God, 
as  he  is  made  known  by  inward  conscience  and 
outward  providence,  and  that  they  are  suited  to 
man,  to  his  moral  nature,  his  deeper  wants,  and 
his  position  as  a  being  who  has  to  appear  at  a 
judgment   seat.     He    finds   it    stated,   that   the 
Founder  of   the    religion   wrought   miracles    of 
power   and  mercy,    and  that  he  rose  from  the 
dead ;  he  does  not  propose  to  settle  theoretically 
what  nature  cannot  do,  and  wdiat  it  can  do,  but 
he  is  sure,  that  if  one   raised  others  from  the 
dead,  or  rose  himself,  the  operation  is  beyond 


OF  CHRISTIANITY.  285 

all  natural  agency.  He  reads  the  testimony  of 
the  witnesses,  and  sees  it  to  be  characterized  by 
open  and  transparent  guilelessness,  and  he  feels 
that  he  should  trust  it  as  he  does  the  narratives 
of  Herodotus,  or  Xenophon,  or  Julius  Caesar, 
as  to  ancient  history ;  or  of  Bruce,  of  Park,  or 
of  Livingstone,  as  to  distant  countries.  He 
finds,  too,  a  series  of  predictions  of  a  verv  old 
date,  and  he  compares  them  with  events  cer- 
tainly of  a  later  date,  and  detailed  by  independent 
annahsts  and  travellers,  and  he  is  constrained 
to  discern  a  correspondence  far  beyond  what 
human  sagacity  could  have  foreseen.  The  evi- 
dence wliich  is  thus  so  accessible  to  him,  he 
finds  to  be  a  system,  every  part  of  which  supports 
the  other,  and  all  tend  to  one  conclusion.  He 
has  already  good  prima  facie  proof  in  favour  of 
Christianity,  rjuite  as  much  so  as  in  behalf  of  the 
ordinary  truths  of  science,  or  the  common  events 
of  history,  or  the  occurrences  of  his  time  and 
neighbourhood.  What  I  insist  on  is,  that  as  he 
yields  his  assent  to  the  natural  truths,  and  acts 
upon  his  conviction,  so  he  should  also  give  a 
willing  assent  to  the  supernatural  acts  ;  and,  as 
this  is  pre-eminently  a^practical  matter,  he  should 
add  the  consent  of  the  will  to  the  assent  of  the 
understanding,  and  enter  by  faith  into  possession 
of  the  blessings  secured. 

As  he  does  so  he  will  find  that  new^  evidence 


286  THE  EVIDENCES 

pours  in  upon  him.  His  eye  having  been  singlj 
bent  upon  discovering  the  hght  of  truth,  he  is 
rewarded  first  by  discovering  hght,  and  then,  in 
that  hght  he  finds  his  way  to  more  hght.  When 
the  boy  beheves  the  Copernican  and  Newtonian 
theories  of  the  heavens  on  the  fair  evidence  pre- 
sented to  him,  he  finds  in  all  his  after  life  ex- 
perimental confirmation  of  the  doctrines.  The 
young  anatomist  who  rejects  the  theory  that  the 
backbone  is  made  up  of  vertebroe  will  find  him- 
self involved  in  ever-increasing  difficulties,  as  he 
would  reach  a  consistent  view  of  the  skeleton  ; 
but,  let  him  admit  the  hypothesis,  and  he  has 
corroborations  in  every  bone  of  the  frame.  In 
like  manner,  he  who  rejects  Christianity  shall 
find  that  he  has  turned  his  back  upon  the  light, 
and  that  he  is  walking  into  deeper  darkness  ; 
while  he  who  is  led  to  embrace  it,  by  its  primary 
proof,  will  find  that  he  has  his  fa^ce  to  the  light, 
that  the  shadow  is  behind  him,  and  that  more 
light  shines  upon  him  as  he  advances.  He  will 
see  every  day,  more  and  more  clearly,  that  the 
gift  of  God's  Son  harmonizes  all  things  in  this 
world;  and,  as  he  exercises  faith  on  the  Sa- 
viour, he  has  within  himself  the  most  convincing 
of  all  proof,  because  an  experimental  proof. 

But  neither  is  this  evidence  independent  of 
the  other  proofs,  and  we  run  the  risk  of  ex- 
tinguishing  it,  or  rather  of  hindering  it  from 


OF  CHRISTIANITY.  287 

being  kindled,  if  we  do  not  allow  them  to  feed 
it.  For  the  question  arises,  how  are  those  who 
have  not  this  inward  witness  to  obtain  it?  If 
the  answer  be,  by  confiding  in  the  religion 
proffered  us,  this  only  raises  the  question,  on 
what  ground  is  this  demanded  ?  If  the  reply 
be,  "  only  believe,"  I  ask,  beheve  in  what?  and 
if  the  demand  be  to  believe  in  the  religion  of 
our  fathers  or  of  our  country,  then  I  shew  that 
this  would  justify  the  Arab  in  believing  in  the 
Koran.  The  human  intellect  is  so  constituted 
that  in  order  to  conviction  there  must  be  fair 
evidence  supplied,  and  w^hen  this  is  not  pre- 
sented, minds  of  the  higher  sort  will  be  apt  to 
resist  and  resent  the  attempts  made  to  coerce 
them,  or  to  gain  them  on  the  ground  of  mere 
hereditary  opinion.  There  is  an  utter  ignorance 
of  human  nature  shewn  by  those  who  tell  the 
anxious  inquirer  that  he  needs  no  other  witness 
than  the  experimental  one,  for  the  person  feels 
— painfully  feels  it  may  be-— that  as  yet  he  has 
not  that  heart  testimony,  and  may  probably  turn 
upon  you,  and  tell  you  with  great  bitterness,  that 
he  is  without  it,  and  ask  what  you  can  do  for 
him  in  his  present  state.  As  I  understand  the 
plan  of  salvation,  there  must  be  some  faith  be- 
fore any  man  can  have  the  inward  light.  It  is 
to  faith,  as  receiving  it,  that  the  grace  is  im- 
parted which  becomes   the   witness.     The  evi- 


288  THE  EVIDENCES 

dence  wliicli  gains  the  assent  may  not  embrace 
all  that  is  expounded  in  books  of  apologetics ;  it 
may  not  be  systematized  or  expressed  by  him 
who  is  swayed  by  it ;  it  may  be  of  the  simplest 
possible  character,  derived  from  the  reading  of 
the  Word,  and  a  recognition  of  the  truths  there 
revealed  as  suited  to  our  nature,  and  evidently 
provided  by  the  good  God  who  made  us,  and  the 
holy  God  who  rules  the  world  ;  still  it  is  evidence 
good  in  itself,  and  when  it  gains  the  will  and  has 
power  in  the  heart  the  man  has  now  more  satis- 
factory proof,  than  ever  he  had  before,  in  this 
light  within, — which  has  depended  on  the  pre- 
liminary faith  and  evidence,  only  as  the  burning 
lamp  has  upon  the  taper  which  kindled  it. 
It  is  upon  this  internal  experience  that  the 
believer  ever  falls  back,  when  at  any  time  he  is 
harassed  by  doubts  or  oppressed  by  fears.  He 
may  not  be  able  to  answ^er  all  the  objections 
urged  against  religion.  He  may  not  be  able  to 
shew  wherein  lies  the  fallacy  of  Hume's  objec- 
tions to  miracles — any  more  than  he  can  solve 
all  the  dfficulties  which  the  same  ingenious 
sceptic  has  started  about  the  existence  of  matter. 
He  cannot,  it  may  be,  shew  the  very  reconcilia- 
tion of  the  progression  in  the  opening  chapter  of 
Genesis,  with  the  progression  of  palaeontology, 
(though  he  sees  a  general  correspondence,)  nor 
rebut  every  scoffing  assertion,  put  by  the  Rev. 


/ 


OF  CHRISTIANITY. 


289 


Rowland  Williams  into  the  mouth  of  Bunsen 
(who  never  scoffed,  and  was  so  devout  and  loving, 
despite  the  emptiness  and  inconsistencies  of  his 
creed),  nor  clear  up  every  doubt  uttered  with  so 
wild  a  cry  by  the  Rev.   Benjamin  Jowett,  who 
looks  so  sorry  because  he  has  lost  his  early  faith, 
and  yet  cannot  repent  of  his  having  parted  with 
it.     Still,  he  has  attained  a  most  reasonable  con- 
viction,   and    he    stands — and    he   feels  he  can 
stand  firmly — upon  the  overwhelming  evidence 
which  he  has  in  the  felt  power  of  religion.     So 
far  as  he  has  time  to  enter  into  the  controversy, 
he  is  convinced  that  the  argument  is  all  on  the 
side  of  the  defenders  of  Christianity.     But  his 
defence,  when  every  other  fails  him,  will  be — "  I 
am  not  able  to   demonstrate  it,  or  confute  all 
your  objections;  but  I  feel  it,  I  know  it  to  be 
true."     The  meaning  of  all  this  is,  that  he,  a 
simple,  perhaps  an  unlettered,  or  a  practically 
busy  Christian  has  not  been  trained  and  is  not  ac- 
customed, to  give  his  reasons  for  his  conviction. 
But  he  is  not,   therefore,  without  his  reasons. 
It  is  an  argument  valid  in  everyway;  it  is  an 
argument  with  the  premises  and  the  conclusion 
both  within  his  own  experience.  It  is  an  argument 
from  effect  to  cause ;  he  argues  that  the  religion 
must  be  Divine  which  has  had,  which  has,  such  a 
beneficent  infiuence  in  giving  peace  and  in  gain- 
ing victories  over  the  evil  inclinations  of  the  heart. 


290  THE  EVIDENCES 

According  to  this  representation,  there  is  an 
important  end  served  by  works  on  tlie  Christian 
Evidences-  I  am  aware  that  some  excellent 
Christians  speak  disparagingly  of  all  books  on 
apologetic  theology,  and  of  addresses  on  re- 
ligious subjects  to  what  they  call  the  logical 
understanding.  And  I  allow  at  once  that  the 
understanding  cannot  .  do  everything,  that  it 
cannot  fulfil  the  highest  offices  in  rehgion;  I 
admit  it  as  a  fact  of  our  mental  nature,  that  no 
logical  act  of  the  mind  does  of  itself  call  forth 
feeling.  No  abstract  notion,  no  general  notion, 
no  proposition  as  a  proposition,  no  linked  ratio- 
cination, is  fitted  to  excite  love  or  emotion  of  any 
kind.  Feeling  is*  evoked  by  the  perceived  pre- 
sence, or  by  the  mental  apprehension  and  image 
of  a  person,  or  of  an  individual  object  of  some 
description.  But  still,  the  discursive  processes 
of  the  mind,  as  part  of  the  constitution  given 
us  by  God,  have  important  j^u-i'poses  to  serve. 
The  abstract  or  general  notion  logically  formed 
clears  our  apprehensions,  and  may  allow  the 
affection  to  How  forth  towards  its  proper  object. 
A  false  proposition  assented  to,  and  a  perverted 
train  of  reasoning,  may  turn  aside  the  whole 
current  of  the  sentiments,  when  they  were  ready 
to  flow  in  the  right  channel.  Convince  the  son 
that  his  father  has  committed  a  dishonest  or 
dishonourable  action,  and  his  feeling  of  esteem 


OF  CHRISTIANITY. 


291 


instantly  suffers  a  fearful  revulsion.     Eeasou  us 
into  the  opinion  that  Jesus  Christ  is  not  what 
he   professed,   or  that   he    did  a  dishonourable 
action,  and  our  reverence  for  him  is  sadly  in- 
terfered with.     When  the  understanding  is  not 
gained,  the  pictures  of  the  fancy  pass  away  like 
the  incidents  of  the  drama  or  the  novel,  which 
no  doubt  leave  their  impression  for  good  or  for 
evil,  but  do  not  engage   any  abiding  affection 
towards  the  characters,  or  issue  in  any  course  of 
practical    conduct    directed   towards   them.      It 
was  never  meant  that  our  varied  mental  powers 
should  be  separated  in  the  convictions  w^e  cherish 
towards   God  and  the  homage  we  pay  him, — 
just  as  it  was  never  intended  that  w^e  should  mu 
tilate  or  divide  the  members  of  our  frame  in  our 
corporeal  exercises.     Every  one  knows  that  the 
utter  neglect  or  even  the  undue  use  of  any  of 
our  bodily  organs  disfigures  the  general  form ; 
and  a  like  prejudicial  influence  is  exercised  upon 
the  soul  when,  in  our  pious  acts  and  services, 
we  disunite  those  faculties  which  ought  all  to  be 
consecrated  to  God,  and  dedicated  to  his  service, 
and   which   ever    operate    best   wdien   they   co- 
operate,— when,    for   example,  we  give   such  a 
dominating   authority  to  the  understanding  as 
to  become  rationalists,  or  so  indulge  the  feelings 
as  to  become  sentimentalists,  or  allot  to  outward 
symbolism  such  a  position  in  our  worship  as  to 


292 


THE  EVIDENCES 


make  it  take  the  pkace  of  God.  We  do  claim 
for  the  understanding  an  miportant  place  in 
religion,  as  being  in  a  sense  the  very  bones  of 
the  body,  and  yet  we  would  have  no  one  to  stop 
and  rest  satisfied  with  a  mere  head  conviction. 
There  is  never  true  faith  till  the  will,  the  choice, 
the  consent  of  the  mind  be  gained — that  is,  till 
we,  as  it  were,  concur  in  what  we  discover  to  be 
true.  And  with  this,  and  following  upon  it, 
there  will  be  affection, — affection  w^arm  and 
living,  rising  beyond  all  discursive  acts,  em- 
bracing the  object  and  clinging  to  it  with  a 
grasp  which  can  never  be  loosened.''' 

It  was  a  most  perilous  course  which  was 
followed  in  Oxford  an  acje  aiio,  when  men  of 
erudition  and  friendly  to  religion  laboured  to 
shew  that  the  Evidences  of  Religion,  Natural 
and  Revealed,  could  not  stand  the  tests  of 
logical  evidence.  Two  very  opposite  and  yet 
riot  inconsistent  results  followed.  Those  who 
had  deep  natural  faith,  feeling  that  they  must 
have  something  to  lean  on,  were  induced  to 
leap  into  the  arms  of  a  pretended  infallible 
church,  rather  than  be  left  in  the  dreary  desert 
of  unbelief,  or  be  driven  out  into  the  awful  gulf 
of  atheism.     As  falling  among  other  materials, 

*  The  above  is  the  way  in  which  I  would  settle  the  questions  dis- 
cussed by  Dr.  Domer  in  his  Letter  to  the  British  Churches,  by  the 
Bishop  of  Cork  in  his  Letter  to  n:e,  and  again  by  Domer  in  the 
Tahrbiicher  fiir  Deutsche  Theoloi?:e. 


OF  CIIRISTIAXITY. 


293 


the  sparks  kindled  a  very  different  conflagration. 
Not  a  few,  unable  to  accept  the  inconsistencies 
and  follies  of  the  Romish  Church,  were  left  out 
on  the  wide  waste  to  which  they  had  been  con- 
ducted by  those  who  should  have  led  them  in  a 
far  different  route,  and  have  ever  since  been  rest- 
less— and  conceited  withal ;  looking  wise  above 
others,  as  they  let  you  know  that  they  see  the 
errors  of  the  vulgar  creed,  but  ever  constrained 
to  look  out  on  the  dark  waters  before  them,  and 
unable  to  settle  on  any  fixed  conviction,  or  ac- 
cept any  solid  doctrine ;  and  in  this  painful 
position  some  of  them  pour  out  their  soul  in 
a  plaintive  tone,  as  those  who  have  lost  some- 
thing in  which  they  trusted,  but  in  which  they 
trust  no  longer ;  while  others  find  a  sort  of 
relief  in  scoffing  and  reviling. 

Nor  is  this  state  of  things  much  if  at  all 
improved,  when  some  of  those  who  go  to  the 
negative  side,  after  they  have  shewn  or  rather 
asserted  that  the  ordinary  arguments  in  behalf  of 
Christianity  are  inconclusive,  hand  us  over  to  an 
inexplicable,  an  unreasoning,  and  unreasonable 
faith,  which  says  nothing  in  behalf  of  Chris- 
tianity more  than  it  does  in  favour  of  Buddhism. 
This  was  the  veiy  method  of  David  Hume  as  he 
mocked  at  Christianity, — he  was  not  meaning  to 
treat  religion  with  disrespect  when  he  shewed 
that  it  could  not  stand  a  sifting  inspection  by 


204 


THE  EVIDEXCES 


the  reason,  he  was  rather  honouring  it  when  he 
consigned  it  to  the  region  of  faith  !  !  It  is  a 
curious  circumstance,  that  some  unwise  friends 
of  Christianity  at  the  time  were  deceived  hy  this 
style  of  speaking,  and  actually  maintained  that 
the  great  sceptic  was  henefiting  religion,  and 
placing  it  upon  a  surer  basis  than  those  who 
defended  it  hy  argument.  This  is  the  method 
wdiich  has  been  followed  in  our  day  by  Mr.  B. 
Powell,  who  proceeds  systematically  to  under- 
mine our  belief  in  the  supernatural,  as  a  reason- 
able conviction  which  can  stand  the  tests  of 
modern  induction,  and  then  commits  us  to  some 
sort  of  faith  or  moral  vision,  of  whose  nature  he 
gives  no  account,  and  wdiose  claims  upon  our 
attention  he  is  at  no  pains  to  vindicate.  It  is  a 
circumstance  to  be  regretted  that  this  is  the 
method  practically  followed  by  some  in  our  time, 
wdio  w^ould  shrink  with  horror  from  the  blank 
scepticism  of  Hume,  and  are  entirely  o]3posed  to 
the  cold  naturalism  of  Mr.  Powell.  Those  to 
whom  I  now  refer,  after  cutting  off  all  the  common 
arguments  in  behalf  of  the  Divine  existence  and 
of  Christianity,  still  insist  that  mankind  should 
believe.  But  it  has  turned  out,  as  any  man  of 
ordinary  sagacity  might  have  foreseen,  that  those 
who  have  followed  them  in  their  speculative 
scepticism  refuse  to  be  led  by  them — indeed 
feel  that  they  cannot  obey  them — when  bidden 


OF  CHRISTIANITY. 


20.1 


to  believe.  These  doubts  and  sceptical  princi- 
ples may  exercise  no  influence  for  evil  on  those 
middle-aged  men  who  have  reached  a  settled 
conviction,  and  who  can  stand  secure,  though 
the  ladder  by  which  they  mounted  be  taken  down, 
as  they  will  certainly  be  felt  to  be  harmless  by 
those  who  have  the  light  of  the  Spirit  to  keep 
them  from  wandering ;  but  I  fear,  that  unless 
counteracted,  they  may  leave  their  impression 
on  those  young  men  who  have  attained  to  no 
decided  belief,  and  who  feel  that  they  have  no 
means  left  them  of  reaching  the  heights  which 
they  see  far  above  them.  The  natural  effect  on 
their  minds  will  be,  that  they  decline  accepting 
a  religion  which  is  supposed  to  be  incapable  of 
defence;  and  it  is  vain  for  good  men  to  exhort 
them  to  seek  the  light,  after  they  have  taken 
such  pains  to  shew  that  there  is  no  evidence 
that  light  is  to  be  found. 

In  opposition  to  all  this  prevailing  style  of 
thought  and  sentiment,  of  doubt,  insinuation, 
muendo,  and  complaint,  it  should  be  openly 
declared  and  resolutely  maintained  that  the 
Divine  origin  of  Christianity  can  be  defended 
to  the  satisfaction  of  the  human  understanding. 
The  Eev.  Mark  Pattison  would  leave  the  impres- 
sion on  our  minds,  that  the  Defences  of  Religion 
by  writers  in  England,  from  the  Eevolution 
Settlement  to  the  Middle  of  Last  Century,  were 


296 


TEE  EVIDENCES 


an  entire  failure.     But  among  bis  learned  lite- 
rary sketches,  and  his  petty  carpings,  we  look  in 
vain  for  any  clear  and  broad  statement  of  the 
grounds  on' which   he   reckons   the   arguments 
as  inconclusive.      Some   dozen  writers  of  con- 
siderable  ability  had  made  an  attack  on  Chris- 
tianity, and  they  were  answered  by  many  scores 
of  authors,  who  wrote  hundreds  of  works  of  all 
sizes,  from  the  ephemeral  pamphlet  up  to  the 
octavo  or  folio  of  several  volumes,  and  poured 
them  forth  every  year,  at  times  every  few  months, 
for  two   or  three  ages.     The  works  of  some  of 
the  deistical  writers  had  a  considerable  sale — 
larger   than    even    the    "  Essays   and   Reviews " 
have  ha<l — and  the  authors  and  their  supporters 
spoke  with  high  confidence,  and  boasted    that 
as  Christianity  had  already  been  abandoned  by 
free  and  independent  thinkers,  it  would  be  cast 
off  by  all  before  the  end  of  the  century.     The 
names  of  some  of  the  English  deists  are  still 
occasionally   referred    to,    but   their   works    are 
placed  upon  the  inaccessible  shelves  of  our  great 
libraries,  and  are  seldom  taken  down  except  by 
literary  antiquarians  and  theological  controver- 
sialists.    The  same  fate  has  befallen  the  greater 
part  of  the  replies  to  them,  many  of  which  were 
distinguished  by  ability  quite  equal  to  that  of 
their  opponents.     In  opposition  to  the  i'pse  dixit 
of  Mr.  Pattison,  I  give  it  as  my  decided  convic- 


OF  CimiSTIASITY.  297 

tion,  the  result  of  a  considerable  acquaintance 
with  both  sides  of  the  controversy,  that  the  ol)jec- 
tions  of  the  deistical  writers  were  fully  and  fairly 
met  by  the  defenders  of  the  faith,  as  they  were 
certainly  believed  to  be  so  by  the  country  at 
large,  which,  long  before  the  time  when  Christi- 
anity Vas  expected  to  fall,  had  ceased  to  read 
the  attacks  on  it,  and  therefore  ceased  to  read  the 
mass  of  the  replies  to  them.  And  there  were 
defences  produced  at  that  time,  such  as  those  of 
Clarke,  of  Butler,  and  of  Lardner,  which  are  not 
superseded,  which  have  never  been  systemati- 
cally answered,  and  which  are  not  to  be  over- 
thrown by  a  small  criticism,  or  the  detection  of 
some  non-essential  oversight  or  inaccuracy.  It 
is  all  true  that  the  defences  were  not  always  nor 
usually  such  as  would  be  advanced  in  our  day, 
but  then,  neither  were  the  assaults.  Those  who 
stood  up  for  Christianity,  caught  the  spirit  of 
their  times  ;  they  had  to  proceed  on  the  prin- 
ciples given  or  granted  to  them,  and  to  make 
their  arguments  face  the  weapons  of  tlie  oppo- 
nents. In  modern  warfare  we  do  not  use  shields 
as  the  ancients  did,  nor  do  we  erect  the  same 
sort  of  fortresses  as  our  fathers  did  in  feudal 
times.  When  the  philosophy  of  Locke  was 
reigning  in  last  century,  the  assailants  of  Chris- 
tianity proceeded  upon  its  mixed  sensationalism, 
utilitarianism,  and  rationalism,  and  the  defenders 


298 


TEE  EVIJDEXCES 


of  Christianity  did  the  same,  and  foiled  their 
opponents  with  their  own  weapons.  Now  that 
the  reaction  against  Locke  has  been  very  strong 
among  a  certain  class  of  thinkers,  it  would 
not  be  wise  to  reproduce  the  old  defences 
in  precisely  the  same  form, — ^just  as  no  one 
w^ould  now  erect  the  old  baronial  tower  to  resist 
the  modern  gunnery  and  grape  shot.  But  the 
Christianity  which  survived  the  autumnal  decay 
and  the  winter  cold  of  last  century  wdll  not  only 
stand,  but  will  shoot  vigorously  upward,  in  the 
spring  revival  wdth  which  it  is  now  visited,  and 
will  be  found — like  the  plant — to  have  defences 
ready  to  meet  the  attacks  made  on  it. 

The  infidel  wTiters  of  our  day  have  not  more 
ability  than  those  of  the  first  half  of  last  century, 
and  they  certainly  have  not  nearly  the  same 
amount  of  originality  and  independence.  Their 
weapons  are  avowedly  borrow^ed  from  Germany, 
and  the  objections  advanced,  wdiether  philo- 
sophical, critical,  or  historical,  have,  I  believe, 
been  answered  in  the  land  of  their  birth.  In 
that  country  the  great  theologians  of  the  age 
now  passing  away,  and  of  the  present  age,  have 
wrestled  with  the  infidelity  of  the  past  age  or 
two,  and  have  overcome  it.  It  is  scarcely  honest 
in  men  who  are  scholars,  to  propagate  the 
objections,  the  cavils,  and  the  doubts  of  the 
rationalist  or  infidel  writers  of  Germany,  without 


OF  CIIEISTIAXITY 


209 


letting  us  know  that  the  leading  living  divines 
of  Germany  think  they  have  answered  them,  and 
are  generally  allowed  to  have  done  so  hy  those 
who  study  these  subjects  in  that  country ;  and 
that  the  young  life  of  Germany  is  so  convinced 
of  this,  that  the  students  of  the  Universities 
with  eager  looks  throng  (as  I  can  testify  from 
personal  visits)  the  class  rooms  of  the  defenders 
of  the  old  and  orthodox  theology,  while  the  ra- 
tionalists are  lecturing  to  nearly  empty  benches, 
the  few  occupants  of  which  shew  plainly,  by 
their  whole  manner,  that  they  have  no  faith  in 
their  preceptors.  It  was  not  right  in  Mr.  E. 
Williams  to  use  the  name  of  Bunsen,  without 
apprizing  us  that  that  distinguished  man  has  not 
had,  for  the  last  ten  years,  the  least  influence  in 
Germany  as  a  thinker  or  a  divine,  —  how^ever 
much  he  has  been  revered  and  beloved  for  his 
genius,  his  literary  ability,  his  attachment  to 
religious  liberty,  and  his  noble  personal  charac- 
ter as  a  man  and  a  Christian.  In  a  treatise 
devoted  to  a  special  topic,  w^e  cannot  give  the 
defences  that  have  appeared  in  Germany  of  the 
Word  of  God  and  its  leading  doctrines;  but  they 
will  now  be  produced  in  abundance  in  tliis 
country,  either  in  translations,  or,  better  still, 
transmitted  through  the  minds  of  Englishmen, 
who,  while  they  freely  use  the  materials  pre- 
pared for  them,  at  the  same  time   give  them  a 


300 


THE  EVIDEXCES 


form  and  a  direction   suited  to  the  tastes  and 
wants  of  our  age  and  nation. 

The  Christian  apologist  should  ever  hear  in 
mind  as  for  himself,  and  he  should  always  let  it 
appear  in  his  writings,  that  he  does  not  stand 
on  any  one  of  the  proofs,  since  he  has  so  many. 
Every  one  of  the  paj'ts,  indeed,  has  some  force, 
hut  their  strength  lies  in  their  combination. 
He  who  would  force  an  entrance  is  not  to  he 
allowed  to  break  the  links  one  by  one,  but  must 
face  the  whole  complex  chain-work.  It  is  easy 
to  insinuate  doubt  and  start  difficulties, — there 
are  some  whose  intellectual  temper  leads  them 
to  do  so  in  regard  to  every  topic ;  and  in  every 
profound  subject  perplexities  can  be  found  by 
those  who  are  bent  on  discovering  them.  It 
should  be  allowed  in  regard  to  revealed  truth,  that 
it  is  not  difficult  to  fall  in  with  real  difficulties  : — - 
originating  in  the  brevity  of  the  narratives  trans- 
mitted to  us  ;  in  our  consequent  ignorance  of  the 
whole  facts  ;  in  the  apparent  discrepancies  thus 
produced  as  we  want  the  reconciling  fact;  in 
the  incidents  having  occurred  in  remote  ages  and 
times,  when  the  manners,  and  feelings,  and 
modes  of  speaking  and  address,  were  so  different 
from  what  they  now  are ;  in  natural  feelings 
being  allowed  their  play  in  the  inspired  writ- 
ings ;  in  the  occasional  corruptions  which  have 
crept  into  manuscript  texts  of  the  Scripture ;  in 


OF  CHRISTIANITY.  301 

the  high  and  mysterious  character  of  many  of  the 
doctrines  taught ;  and  hi  the  hmited  capacities 
of  man  ;  or  it  may  he  in  many  other  circum- 
stances. By  fixing  the  attention  on  one  or  two  of 
these  dilhculties,  and  hy  gazing  on  them  till  they 
have  hecome  enlarged  and  assumed  a  formidahle 
shape  in  the  twilight,  we  may  create  a  plausible 
objection, — just  as  we  have  found  in  our  own  per- 
sonal history,  that  the  most  innocent  incidents 
have  been  made  to  take  a  sinister  and  suspicious 
appearance,  by  being  separated  from  the  cir- 
cumstances and  the  connexions.  It  is  the  policy 
of  the  infidel,  to  draw  off  the  attention  from  the 
grand  body  of  evidence  to  the  minute  perplexi- 
ties and  apparent  discrepancies,  and  this  often 
by  hint  and  inuendo,  rather  than  direct  asser- 
tion. Christian  apologists,  each  in  his  ovm  de- 
partment, must  consider  these  difiiculties;  but 
they  should  never  allow  their  whole  forces  to  be 
drawn  down  into  a  disadvantageous  hollow, 
where  the  fight  becomes  a  squabble,  in  which 
a  very  weak  but  impudent  enemy  may  seem  to 
be  gaining  the  victory.  In  going  down  to 
meet  the  adversary  in  detail,  they  should  feel 
fur  themselves,  and  make  it  appear  to  all 
onlookers,  that  their  strength  lies  in  their 
grand  general  proof;  and  as  they  do  so  they 
may,  without  damaging  their  cause,  allow  that 
there  are  difficulties  which  they  cannot  entirely 


302  TEE  EVIDENCES 

meet,  and  mysteries  which  they  cannot  fully 
clear  up. 

Were  it  within  our  special  suhject,  it  might 
be  shewn  by  a  historico- critical  dissertation  that, 
in  every  age  of  the  Church  of  God,  sufficient 
evidence  has  been  furnished  to  the  candid  mind 
of  the  operation  of  a  supernatural  povv^er.  It 
should  be  added,  that  in  no  age  has  proof  of 
such  a  character  been  furnished  as  to  preclude 
the  possibility  of  doubt.  I  believe  that  the  very 
existence  of  God  is  not  a  truth  of  so  intuitive  or 
demonstrative  a  character,  as  to  make  it  impos- 
sible for  the  fool  to  say  in  his  heart  that  there 
is  no  God.  In  regard  to  the  Bible  revelation, 
God  has  given  sufficient  proof  to  convince  every 
truth- seeking  mind,  but  not  enough  to  prevent 
cavilling.  There  is  thus  a  sort  of  moral  pro- 
bation in  the  w^ay  in  which  the  evidence  is 
presented. 

In  some  respects  it  is  more  difficult  for  those 
educated  up  to  the  advanced  science  of  our  age 
to  believe  in  a  supernatural  operation,  than  for 
those  who  lived  in  earlier  times,  when  the  dis- 
tinction between  the  Divine  and  the  mundane 
had  not  been  clearly  drawn.  And,  again,  since 
the  days  of  Niebuhr,  historical  criticism  has 
been  altogether  setting  aside  a  thousand  legends, 
in  which  our  forefathers  supposed  there  might 
be  seme  discoverable  truth.     But  then,  to  coun- 


OF  CIIRISTIANirY. 


303 


terbalance  all  tins,  we  have  now  reached  a  firm 
settlement  and  a  clear  expression  of  many  scien- 
tific and  critical  principles,  which  were  before 
undefined  and  disputed.     In  primitive  ages  and 
rude  states  of  society,  it  has  not  been  determined 
how  much  or  how  little  nature  can  do,  and  so 
persons  ascribe  to  the  supernatural  what  is  purely 
natural;  but  they  may  also  refer  to  nature  what 
is  miraculous.     In  such  stages  of  society,  adults 
are  in  the  position  in  which  children  still  are, 
wdio  would  not  be  astonished  though  you  were 
to  tell  them  that  a  dog  had  spoken,  or  that  a  cat 
could  fly,  or  that  the  moon  might  be  brought 
doNvn  and  exposed  for  inspection  on  the  table. 
The  savage  could  easily  be  persuaded  that  bal- 
loons  are   heavenly  visitants,   and'  that  steam- 
ships  are    moving   gods.      In    such   a   state   of 
things,  much  might  be  ascribed  to  the  unknown 
powers  of  the  world,  which  really  came  from  the 
special  operation  of  God.      But  in  these  ages 
and  countries,    while   we    are    still  far   enouojli 
from  knowing  all  that  nature  can  do,  we  know 
that  it  has  certain   impassable    limits  imposed 
upon  it ;  we  know  that  no  human  skill  can  cure 
organic  diseases,  that  no  human  power  can  raise 
the  dead.     Historical  criticism  has  certainly  set 
aside  many  narratives  which  were  fondly  credited 
in  former  days ;  but  then,  it  has  laid  down  rules 
which  decide  that  certain  otlier  narratives   arc 


304.  THE  EVIDENCES 

not  to  be  denied.  It  has  made  us  doubt  of  the 
legends  of  early  Greece  and  Rome,  because  we 
have,  in  fact,  no  original  witnesses  in  their  favour; 
but  it  has  made  it  impossible  for  us  to  doubt 
of  the  poisoning  of  Socrates,  of  the  conquests  of 
Alexander,  of  the  battle  of  Pharsalia,  of  the  as- 
sassination of  Julius  Ciiesar;  and  none  of  these 
events  is  supported  by  better  evidence  than  the 
crucifixion  of  Jesus  and  his  resurrection  from 
the  dead. 

If  it  be  true  that  in  these  times  we  have  a 
more  expanded  view  of  the  system  of  nature,  it 
is  also  true,  that  from  the  height  we  have 
reached,  we  have  a  better  comprehension  of 
Christianity,  of  its  varied  evidences,  and  of  the 
influence  which  it  exercises  for  good  on  nations 
and  on  individuals.  If  the  telescope  has  dis- 
closed to  us  new  worlds  under  natural  law,  the 
revelation  of  God  has  shewn  us  spiritual  lights, 
which  we  now  clearly  discover  to  be  under  yet 
higher  law.  If  geology  has  carried  us  far  beyond 
human  and  historical  ages,  and  has  shewn  the 
same  causes  operating  in  them  all  and  down 
to  this  present  time,  the  Word  of  God  brings 
before  us  a  counsel  and  a  plan,  beginning  before 
creation,  and  kept  in  view  in  all  creation,  and 
being  executed  in  time.  If  the  combined  lights  of 
history  and  of  travels  let  us  see  more  of  the  cha- 
racter and  ways  of  mankind,  they  also  prove  more 


OF  CHIilSTIAXITY.  305 

clearly  and  unequivocally,  that  man  has  never 
risen  by  his  own  unaided  exertion  to  a  pure 
religion,  or  the  conception  of  a  pure  morality. 
With  the  completed  Scriptures  in  our  hands  in 
"a  printed  form,  and  with  the  light  thrown  upon 
them  by  the  observation  of  travellers  in  eastern 
countries  and  the  researches  of  scholars,  we  can 
more  readily  compare  one  part  with  another  and 
rise  to  a  connected  view  of  the  whole.  We  now 
see  more  fully  than  our  fathers  could  do  the 
fulfilment  of  prophecy;  in  the  Jews  scattered 
among  all  nations ;  in  the  present  condition  of 
the  Bible  lands ;  in  tlie  fate  of  the  Assyrian,  the 
Babylonian,  and  Egyptian  empires;  in  the  pro- 
gress of  the  kingdom  of  Christ;  and  in  the 
mighty  power  once  reached  by  the  Ptomish 
Church,  and  the  struggles  it  is  making  prior 
to  its  ultimate  fall.  We  have  a  wider  experience, 
than  those  who  lived  in  former  times,  as  to  the 
inability  of  ..unaided  reason  to  provide  a  pure 
religion  satisfactory  to  the  wants  of  mankind. 
The  Fathers  of  the  Church  urged,  with  great 
power,  that  for  many  long  ages  human  nature 
had  had  a  fair  field  in  which  to  shew  what  it 
could  do  without  a  revelation.  But,  to  the 
experimental  facts  known  to  the  early  apologists 
of  the  faith,  we  have  now  an  immense  addition 
gathered  from  all  descriptions  of  countries,  from 
the  savage  life  of  Africa,  America,  and  Australia, 

u 


306  THE  EVIDENCES 

and  from  the  hundreds  of  miUions  of  the  semi- 
civihzed  mhabitants  of  China  and  Japan. 

We  can  hkewise  point  to  experiments  of  a 
new  kind,  in  the  attempts  which  have  been 
made  to  supersede  Christianity  by  those  who  havd 
had  the  advantage  of  the  hght  shed  by  its  revealed 
truths.  We  had,  for  example,  the  attempts  of 
the  French  deists  or  atheists  towards  the  close 
of  last  century,  leading  to  the  disorganization 
of  all  society,  and  kept  from  intolerable  disorder 
only  by  the  rise  of  a  military  despotism,  and  a 
determined  reaction  in  favour  of  Eomish  Chris- 
tianity. About  the  same  time  we  had,  in  our 
own  land,  the  rationalistic  and  good  morality 
school,  which  has  been  felt  to  be  utterly  power- 
less to  move  the  heart  or  gain  the  affections  of 
the  great  mass  of  the  people,  who  were  left  in  the 
lower  streets  of  our  great  cities,  and  in  many  of 
our  rural  districts  too,  without  any  attempt  to 
elevate  them.  It  has  been  shewn, by  this  last 
experiment,  that  while  a  fair  outward  morality 
may  abide  for  an  age  or  so  after  religion  has 
ceased  to  operate  as  a  living  power,  it  is  only  to 
disappear  and  to  be  turned  into  vice  and  degra- 
dation in  the  succeeding  generation, — just  as  the 
train  may  go  on  for  a  time  after  the  engine  has 
been  taken  off,  but  will  cease  in  the  end  to  have 
any  motion— except  it  be  a  downward  and  de- 
structive one.    We  have  also  had^  at  a  later  date, 


OF  CHRISTIANITY.  307 

among  a  portion  of  the  educated  classes  all  over 
Europe,  the  bolder  attempts  of  the  great  panthe- 
istic school  of  Germany,  ending  in  utter  specula- 
tive confusion,  and  in  acknowledged  failure  in 
the  land  of  its  birth,  and  sweeping  over  other 
countries  without  influencing  any  beyond  a  few 
speculative  or  literary  men,  who  cannot  be  said  to 
have  got  peace  for  themselves,  and  who  have 
nothing  to  offer  to  others.  Many  a  modern  sys- 
tem builder,  after  spending  a  lifetime  in  oppos- 
ing Christianity,  has  been  obliged  to  feel,  if  not 
to  say,  with  Julian,  "  Thou  hast  conquered  me, 
0  Galilean." 

And  what  has  the  Naturalist  School,  which  is 
now  springing  up  on  the  debris  of  the  rational- 
istic and  pantheistic  systems,  to  offer  to  the  poor 
in  their  wants,  to  the  sorrowing  in  their  be- 
reavements, to  the  sick  in  their  helplessness,  to 
the  outcast  in  their  degradation,  to  bear  them 
up,  to  cheer  them  and  regenerate  them.  The 
behevers  in  mere  natural  force  have  generally 
kept  out  of  the  way  of  such — except  indeed  at 
times  to  reheve  their  temporal  v/ants — and  when 
at  any  time  they  have  been  brought  face  to  face 
with  them,  they  have  commonly  been  struck 
w^ith  dumbness,  as  feeling  that  they  have  no 
balm  to  offer  to  their  wounded  and  bleeding 
spirits.  Not  that  we  are  to  look  on  the  Gospel 
as   fitted   only   for  the  poor  and   degraded.     I 


308  THE  EVIDENCES 

believe  that  the  veiy  rich  are  often  made  to  feel 
their  poverty  in  the  midst  of  their  wealth  ;  and 
the  gay  their  need  of  an  abiding  object  in  the 
midst  of  their  pleasures  ;  and  the  refined  their 
need  of  a  deeper  enjoyment  in  the  midst  of  their 
elegances  and  comforts ;  that  the  learned  feel 
their  ignorance  in  the  midst  of  their  accumula- 
tions of  facts  and  opinions ;  that  the  self-righte- 
ous man  feels  that  he  wants  an  embankment  to 
beat  back  the  waters  when  they  would  flow^  in  at 
the  low  jjlaces  of  his  soul ;  and  the  strongest 
and  most  confident  are  impressed  with  their 
helplessness  when  temptations  come  in  among 
their  passions — as  the  burning  ships  did  into  the 
heart  of  the  Armada  ;  and  where  are  remedies  to 
be  found  for  all  these  felt  evils,  so  varied  in  the 
case  of  different  individuals,  and  so  deep  in  the 
heart  of  each,  save  in  the  religion  of  the  cross  of 
Christ  ? 


SECT.  II.— CONNEXION  BETWEEN  THE  MIRACLE  AND  THE 
DOCTRINE. 

The  relation  between  these  two  easily  settles 
itself  practically,  in  the  sincere  and  unsophisti- 
cated mind.  We  cannot  have  a  clear  idea  of  it 
theoretically,  without  making  a  number  of  expla- 
nations and  distinctions. 


OF  CHRISTIANITY.  oU\f 

In  regard  to  certain  of  the  doctrines,  such  as 
that  of  the  Holy  Trinity,  and  the  Deity  of 
Jesus  Christ,  we  accept  them  on  the  authority 
of  God  speaking  in  his  "Word,  and  we  have  proof 
that  God  there  speaks,  from  the  miracles  wrought 
in  attestation,  taken  always  in  combination  with 
the  general  doctrines  of  Scripture,  as  commend- 
ing themselves  to  our  moral  reason,  and  as  being 
thus  seen  to  be  worthy  of  God.  Again,  in  re- 
gard to  some  of  the  miracles,  it  may  be  said  to  be 
rather  the  general  authority  of  Scripture  which 
leads  us  to  look  on  them  as  beyond  natural 
povver.  For,  taken  apart  and  by  themselves, 
they  are  not  supported  by  such  an  amount  of 
testimony  as  would  bear  them  up  ;  or  they  might 
be  regarded  simply  as  mundane  occurrences. 
We  beUeve  them  because  we  believe  the  Bible, 
which,  however,  has  a  combination  of  unimpeach- 
able witnesses  to  vouch  for  it. 

Deducting  such  cases,  it  appears  to  me  that 
the  doctrines  and  the  miracles  concur  and  con- 
spire in  the  issue  to  which  we  are  led.  They 
unite,  as  mixed  elements  commonly  do,  as  the 
ground  of  our  convictions  in  the  common  affairs 
of  life.  How  often,  for  example,  do  we  look  to 
the  character  of  the  witness,  and  to  the  manner 
of  his  testimony,  and  the  nature  of  the  fact  he 
depones  to,  before  we  give  or  withhold  our  assent 
to  his  declarations.     The  man  of  candour  and 


310 


THE  EVIDENCES 


ordinary  slirewdiiess  easily  combines  these  into 
a  consistent  unity,  while  it  might  require  a  skil- 
ful analysis  to  spread  out  the  parts  of  the  argu- 
ment in  a  logical  manner,  and  reduce  them  to 
regular  formulae.  It  is  in  much  the  same  way, 
that  the  truths  revealed  and  the  miracles  attest- 
ing them  are  blended  into  a  very  satisfactory 
evidence  by  a  truth-seeking  mind,  which  may 
not  meanwhile,  and  unless  it  has  been  logically 
trained,  be  able  or  inclined  to  untwist  the  threads, 
and  allot  to  each  its  evidential  value. 

As  I  understand  the  inspired  writers,  we  are 
invited  to  look  both  to  the  miracles  and  to  the 
doctrines,  and  also  to  the  circumstances  in  which 
the  revelation  was  made,  and  the  position  in 
which  man  is  placed,  as  evidence  of  the  truth 
of  the  Christian  religion.  The  miracles  are 
wrought  in  behalf  of  revelations  which  commend 
themselves  to  our  higher  reason  and  meet  our 
deeper  wants.  In  particular,  the  miracles  of  our 
Lord  are  associated  with  a  character  of  the 
highest  purity,  with  motives  of  the  most  perfect 
transparency,  and  with  ends  of  the  most  disinte- 
rested benevolence.  "What  we  read  of  the  person 
of  Jesus,  and  of  the  spirit  he  exhibited,  and  the 
truths  he  set  forth,  and  the  precepts  he  incul- 
cated, makes  us  attend  to  his  miracles,  which 
again  assure  us  that  he  is  a  teacher  sent  from 
God,  and  we  believe  what  he  taught.     We  look 


OF  CHRISTIANITY.  311 

to  the  revelation  which  God  is  alleged  to  have 
made,  and  we  lind  it  in  every  way  suited  to  our 
moral  nature  and  state,  as  bridging  over  the 
awful  gulf  which  separates  the  holy  God  from 
the  sinful  creature,  and  thus  bringing  peace  to 
our  dissatisfied  minds  and  troubled  consciences, 
and  providing  a  means  of  enabling  us  to  rise  to 
communion  with  God  and  a  heavenly  purity. 
We  wonder  if  all  this  can  indeed  be  true,  and 
we  examine  the  series  of  alleged  supernatural 
events  wrought  in  attestation,  and  we  find  them 
sustained  by  evidence  quite  as  unexceptionable 
as  we  have  in  behalf  of  any  occurrence  handed 
down  from  ancient  times.  Our  conviction  is 
gained,  not  so  much  by  the  force  of  either  of 
tliese  considerations  singly,  as  by  the  way  in 
which  they  fit  into  one  another.  This  process  is 
not  "  reasoning  in  a  circle."  We  do  not  assume 
without  evidence  that  the  doctrine  is  true  and 
proves  the  miracle,  and  then  take  for  granted 
that  a  miracle  has  been  wrought  and  establishes 
the  doctrine.  The  character  of  Jesus  com- 
mends itself  to  our  highest  moral  idea,  and  the 
salvation  provided  by  him  meets  our  deepest 
moral  w^ants  ;  while  we  have  satisfactory  evidence 
of  the  performance  of  works  which,  from  their 
very  nature,  must  be  superhuman.  Each  side 
stands  on  an  independent  basis  ;  but  each  helps 
also  to  support  the  other,  as  they  meet  in  an  arch 


312 


THE  EVIDENCES 


which  hears  up  those  mysterious  doctrines  which 
relate  to  distinctions  in  the  Divine  nature  and 
the  constitution  of  the  person  of  Jesus. 

AU  that  a  miracle  hy  itself  proves,  is  the 
operation  of  a  supernatural  power.  The  pur- 
pose for  which  it  is  wrought  must  he  gathered 
from  the  concomitant  circumstances,  which,  in 
the  case  of  most  of  the  miracles  recorded  in 
Scripture,  are  quite  sufficient  to  shew  that  the 
event  has  heen  wrought  hv  God,  and  not  by  any 
inferior  or  evil  power.  Being  openly  and  pub- 
licly appealed  to,  hy  those  who  performed 
them,  as  operations  of  God,  they  pledge  the 
Divine  veracity  to  the  mission  of  the  worker. 

The  question  is  here  started,  can  a  miracle 
vouch  for  an  immoral  doctrine  or  for  an  untruth  ? 
It  is  quite  conceivable,  I  think,  that  a  preter- 
natural work  might  be  wrought  in  behalf  of  a 
sinful  practice  or  a  positive  falsehood.  But 
even  so,  it  could  not  sanction  either  the  one  or 
other.  The  good  God  being  governor,  we  cannot 
beheve  him  to  allow  an  event  to  take  place, 
fitted  in  itself,  or  meant  by  him,  to  support  the 
evil  which  he  so  evidently  condemns.  As  to  a 
miracle  or  anything  else  proving  a  falsehood,  it 
could  do  so  only  by  destroying  the  primary  laws 
of  our  intellectual  constitution.  A  preternatural 
event,  wrought  in  behalf  of  vice  or  falsehood 
(if  such  there  be),  must  be  the  work  of  an  evil 


OF  CIIPilSTIAXITY. 


spirit,  and  not  of  the  God  of  goodness  and  truth. 
A  question  may  he  started  as  to  whether  God 
could  or  would  permit  an  evil  power  so  to  inter- 
fere in  our  world.  Of  one  thing  I  am  veiy 
certain,  that  God  would  never  allow  such  an 
interposition,  unless  he  had  provided  a  counter 
light  sufficient  to  keep  all  who  are  seeking  the 
truth  from  heing  deceived.  I  am  inclined  to 
think  that  God  has  allowed  preternatural  events 
to  be  wrought  in  our  world  by  the  great  Adver- 
sary ;  but  then  there  w^as  always  a  means  of 
enabling  those  who  witnessed  them  to  refer 
them  to  their  proper  author,  to  him  who  had 
been  a  liar  from  the  beginning ;  and  it  is  always 
arranged  that  the  Wicked  Power  is  immediately 
and  evidently  overwhelmed  by  the  Good  Power, 
bringing  good  out  of  evil  and  making  the  very 
malice  of  devils  to  praise  him.  In  the  tremen- 
dous convulsions  which  shook  Pharaoh's  throne, 
till  the  children  of  Israel  were  let  go,  there  were 
awful  exertions  made  by  an  ungodly  power,  and 
some  of  these,  if  we  follow  the  obvious  interpre- 
tation of  Scripture,  look  as  if  they  surpassed  the 
limits  of  nature.  But  it  is  to  be  observed,  that 
Satan's  power  is  thus  extended,  only  that  it  may 
be  overwhelmed  by  the  immediate  forthputting 
of  the  higher  power  of  God.  In  the  opening  of 
the  New  Testament  dispensation,  the  license  of 
Satan  seems  to  be  enlarged,  and  he  is  allowed 


314  THE  EVIDENCES 

to  interfere  in  our  world  in  a  way  usually  for- 
bidden, in  gracious  consideration  of  our  weak- 
ness :  but  all  this  is  only  to  call  forth  a  more 
signal  display  of  the  powers  of  Jesus,  and  to  draw 
a  confession  from  the  mouths  of  demons.  These 
lurid  lights  are  allowed  to  rise  from  the  regions 
below  to  amaze  and  bewdlder,  only  when  there 
are  superior  lights  hung  out  in  the  firmament  to 
guide  the  seekers  of  truth  in  the  right  path. 

As  the  revelation  of  God  is  unfolded,  a  system 
of  doctrine  emerges,  which  can  easily  be  appre- 
hended, and  which  may  be  legitimately  employed 
to  attest  alleged  miracles,  at  least  so  far  as  to 
entitle  us  in  certain  cases  to  reject  them  as 
deeds  wrought  by  God.  "  If  there  arise  among 
you  a  prophet  or  a  dreamer  of  dreams  and 
giveth  thee  a  sign  or  a  wonder,  and  the  sign  or 
wonder  come  to  pass  whereof  he  spake  unto 
thee,  saying,  let  us  go  after  other  gods  which 
thou  hast  not  known,  and  let  us  serve  them; 
thou  shalt  not  hearken  unto  the  words  of  that 
prophet  or  that  dreamer  of  dreams,  for  the  Lord 
your  God  proveth  you,  to  know  whether  ye  love 
the  Lord  your  God  with  all  your  heart  and  wdth 
all  your  soul"  (Deut.  xiii.  1 — 3).  Here  it  is 
declared  that  a  wonder,  natural  or  preternatural, 
might  be  permitted  to  be  wrought  for  ungodly 
purposes ;  that  when  so  allowed,  it  is  in  order  to 
test  the  loyalty  of  those  who  have  light ;  and  that 


OF  CHRISTIANITY. 


315 


the  wonder  is  not  to  be  viewed  as  having  the 
sanction  of  God.  The  same  principle  is  laid  down 
in  the  warning  (Deut.  xviii.  20)  against  prophets 
that  "  shall  speak  in  the  name  of  other  gods." 
A  like  test  is  announced  in  the  New  Testament 
dispensation.  "  But  though  we  or  an  angel 
from  heaveii  preach  any  other  gospel  unto  you 
than  that  which  we  have  preached  unto  you,  let 
him  be  accursed"  (Gal.  i.  8).  It  is  on  this 
principle  that  Protestants  reject  in  so  summary 
a  manner  the  miracles  of  the  Romish  Church ; 
they  say,  that  being  wrought  in  behalf  of  error 
they  cannot  be  from  the  God  of  truth.  Those 
who  are  disposed  to  look  upon  the  occurrences 
as  preternatural  will  tell  you  that  they  are 
wrought  by  the  Powers  of  Evil ;  while  the  majo- 
rity of  Protestants  maintain  that  they  bear  no 
marks  of  being  supernatural — that  they  are  the 
offspring  of  a  heated  imagination  or  of  deceit,  of 
one  or  both.  In  all  this  they  can  be  justified 
throughout,  on  the  supposition  that  the  system 
in  behalf  of  which  they  are  wrought  is  con- 
demned in  Scripture.  If  in  the  latter  ages  of 
the  Church  miracles  of  God  be  renewed,  and 
lying  wonders  also  permitted  from  beneath 
(2  Thess.  ii.  9),  depend  upon  it  men  will  always 
have  means  of  distinguishing  between  them,  and 
tracing  both  to  their  proper  source  in  heaven 
or  in  hell. 


316 


THE  EVIDENCES 


SECT.    III.— ENDS    ACCOMPLISHED    BY    THE    SYSTEMATIC 
CHARACTER  OF  REVELATION. 

I.  The  way  in  which  we  reach  the  conviction 
that  there  is  a  supernatural  system,  does  not 
differ  so  much  as  some  imagine,  from  the  pro- 
cess by  which  we  discover  and  authenticate  the 
natural  system. 

At  the  basis  of  our  belief  in  regard  to  natural 
uniformity  there  are  (as  we  have  seen,  Bk.  I.  c.  iii.) 
certain  intuitions  which  do  not  prove  indeed  that 
there  is  regularity,  but  are  ever  prompting  us  to 
take  notice  of  it.  The  discovery  is  actually  the 
result  of  a  long  course  of  inquiry,  giving  us  an 
accumulation  of  inductions,  all  tending  to  one 
conclusion.  Each  department  of  nature,  as  it 
comes  under  inspection,  is  found  to  be  conformed 
to  uniform  laws.  It  was  perceived  at  a  very 
early  date  that  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars  have 
settled  courses,  and  are  regular  in  their  very  irre- 
gularities. This  did  not  prove  that  the  tides  are 
under  the  sway  of  physical  causes ;  but  as  they 
who  dwelt  near  the  sea  coast  watched  their  ebb 
and  flow,  they  found  that  they  too  had  fixed 
times,  which  are  shewn  by  later  science  to  be 
determined  by  the  attractions  of  the  sun  and 
moon.  All  this  is  no  evidence  that  law  rules 
among  these  winds,  which  seem  to  rise  and  fall 


OF  CHRISTIANITY.  317 

SO  capriciously,  but  in  duo  time  it  comes  to  be 
ascertained  that  according  to  a  law  of  equilibrium, 
tliey  ever  flow  towards  the  place  at  which  the  at- 
mosphere is  more  rarefied.  All  this  time  there 
is  no  proof  that  the  sun  may  not  shine  by  a 
supernatural  exercise  of  Divine  Power,  but  later 
science  informs  us  that  the  sunbeam  is  correlated 
with  the  heat  and  mechanical  power  which  play 
so  active  a  part  in  our  earth  and  atmosphere. 
The  evidence  cumulates,  till  at  last  we  have  in 
the  particular  laws  a  sufficient  support  to  the 
general  law,  that  there  is  uniformity  throughout 
the  Cosmos. 

But  let  us  carefully  observe  what  is  the  precise 
truth  which  we  have  reached.  We  have  gained 
the  positive  rule,  that  there  is  a  set  of  natural 
agencies  everywhere  acting  uniformly,  but  w^e 
have  not  established — which  is  a  very  different 
thing — the  negative  rule,  that  there  is  nothing 
else.  Every  one  will  admit  that  what  astronomy 
has  demonstrated  is,  that  gravitation  universally 
operates,  but  not  that  there  is  no  other  force  acting 
in  the  world  or  beyond  it.  In  like  manner,  what 
science  as  a  whole  has  ascertained  is,  that  natu- 
ral law  operates  everywhere,  but  not  that  there 
is  nothing  but  natural  law.  We  have  good 
grounds  of  belief  as  to  the  prevalence  of  mundane 
law,  but  no  "  grounds  of  disbelief"  as  to  the  ex- 
ercise of  preternatural  power,  so  as  to  entitle  us  to 


318  THE  E VIDENCES 

say  that  it  is  impossible,  iDconceivaLle,  or  incre- 
dible. So  far  from  this,  it  is  quite  by  an  analogous 
process  that  we  reach  the  conviction  that  there 
is  a  supernatural  system,  superinduced  upon  the 
natural  and  acting  in  the  midst  of  it. 

First,  there  are  certain  internal  convictions 
and  feelings  which  prompt  us  to  look  for  a  super- 
natural power.  There  are  deep  mental  principles 
which,  as  they  look  to  certain  obvious  facts  in 
nature,  constrain  us  to  believe  in  a  Being  above 
nature.  This  does  not  prove  that  this  Being  acts 
in  our  world  in  a  supernatural  way ;  but  it  pre- 
pares us  to  believe  that  he  may  so  act  if  it  pleases 
him.  And  everywhere  are  there  facts  pressing 
themselves  on  our  notice,  from  without  and  from 
within,  which  seem  to  say  that  it  is  possible  or 
probable  that  God  may  interpose  among  natural 
agents,  not  to  thwart  his  own  ends,  but  to  com- 
plete his  evident  plans.  We  are  made  to  ac- 
knowledge on  the  one  hand  that  God  hates  sin, 
and  on  the  other  hand  that  sin  universally  pre- 
vails. We  are  sure  that  God  will  by  no  means 
clear  the  guilty,  and  yet  we  cling  to  the  hope 
that  he  is  not  altogether  unappeasable.  When 
we  look  up  to  him  we  are  made  to  feel  that  he  is 
at  an  infinite  height  above  us,  and  yet  we  have 
a  strong  confidence  that  he  is  not  altogether 
unknowable  or  unapproachable.  But,  however 
anxiously  we  may  go  in  search  of  it,  we  can  find 


OF  CnniSTIANITY.  319 

in  nature  no  reconciliation  of  these  separated 
truths.     Under  these  fears  and  hopes,  there  has 
ever  heen  a  disposition  on  the  part  of  men  to 
look  for  supernatural  manifestations,  and  they 
have  discovered  them  when  they  had  no  evi- 
dential vv^arrant  for  so  doing ;  in  the  awful  still- 
ness they  have  heard  sounds  which  originated 
in  the  subjective  intensity  of  their  own  longings ; 
as  they  strained  their  eyes  in  the  terrible  dark- 
ness, they  have  mistaken  imperfectly- seen  earthly 
objects  for  heavenly  visitants.     The  profoundly 
wise  man  who  has,  as  for  himself,  studied  the 
problems    or  realized    the    perplexities    of   the 
universe,  will  never  be  inclined  to  look  contemp- 
tuously on  the  deep  religious  anxieties  of  man- 
kind ;  nor  will  he  allow  himself  to  speak  in  tones 
of  ridicule  of  the  premature  beliefs  in  a  super- 
natural revelation,  which  some  have  been  led  to 
cherish  from  the  very  excess  of  their  longings, — 
he  looks  on  these  as  he   would  on  the  hasty 
judgments  of  the  child  who,  in  expecting  his 
father  to  return,  mistakes  the  stranger  for  him — 
as  he  looks  on  those  fanciful  analogies  among 
natural   objects,    wdiich   Pythagoras    and    Plato 
found  before  the  time.     So  far  from  despising 
these,  the  true  philosopher  will  rather  look  on 
them  as  intimations  of  deep  natural  impulses 
and  anticipations,  which  seem  to  guarantee  an 
accomplishment  in  the  end.     Those  who  have 


320  THE  EVIDENCES 

felt — as  I  suppose  we  must  all  have  felt  in  our 
hours  of  deepest  weakness  and  greatest  strength 
— these  failings  and  aspirations  of  heart,  will  be 
inclined  to  long  and  to  pray  that  the  Superna- 
tural Being  would  come  out  of  his  infinite  dis- 
tance, that  he  would  hrea;k  his  silence  and  make 
known  his  will  to  us ;  and  they  will  reckon 
themselves  hound  to  give  their  candid  considera- 
tion to  an  alleged  revelation,  which  is  to  all  ap- 
pearance well  accredited,  and  seems  to  meet  the 
w^ants  of  our  nature  and  position. 

It  should  be  freely  admitted  that  these  desires 
and  cravings  do  not  of  themselves  prove  that 
there  bas  been  an  actual  revelation;  in  order  to 
carry  the  conviction  of  the  reason,  they  need  to 
be  supported  by  a  corresponding  body  of  attested 
facts.  Here,  as  in  so  many  other  cases,  we 
require  objective  realities  as  the  complement  of 
subjective  anticipations — the  latter,  however, 
supplying  the  impulse  which  leads  us  to  observe 
and  collect  the  former.  It  is  at  tliis  point  that 
the  systematic  character  of  revelation  comes  in, 
to  strengthen  tenfo'd  tbe  force  of  the  evidence. 

In  looking  at  the  professed  Kevelation  in  order 
to  determine  whether  it  actually  comes  from 
God,  we  begin,  we  may  suppose,  with  the  exami- 
nation of  the  parts.  We  look  first  at  the  cha- 
racter of  God  as  presented  in  the  Bible,  and  find 
it  to  be  different  from  that  given  in  any  other 


OF  CHRISTIANITY. 


321 


rc4igion  : — unlike  the  gods  of  the  neighhouring 
nations,  he  is  one  ;  and  unhke  the  Deity  created 
by  philosophy,  he  hates  sin  and  yet  loves  the 
sinner.  We  look  at  the  view  given  of  our  own 
essential  being,  and  we  find  it  to  be  in  exact 
conformity  with  our  deepest  convictions ;  for  the 
soul  is  represented  as  possessed  of  high  endow- 
ments; as  immortal  and  infinitely  precious;  as 
polluted  by  sin;  as  about  to  appear  at  a  judgment 
seat ;  and  yet  as  capable  of  being  restored  to  the 
favour  and  image  of  God,  and  to  communion 
with  him.  We  look  at  the  historical  events  re- 
corded, and  we  find  that  they  constitute  a  series; 
that  the  characters  are  after  a  type ;  that  the 
occurrences  and  ordinances  raise  up  a  set  of 
ideas  connected  with  sin  and  salvation ;  and  that 
they  all  culminate  in  the  appearance  of  a  Saviour 
of  the  world.  We  look  at  the  prophecies,  and 
we  find  them  uttered  in  appropriate  circum- 
stances, and  the  fulfilment  of  them  realized  in  a 
succession  of  occurrences  stretching  over  many 
ages  and  wide  countries.  We  look  at  the  mi- 
racles, and  we  find  the  narratives  of  them  to 
be  characterized  by  artlessness  and  guileless- 
ness,  and  the  deeds  themselves  to  be  such  as 
only  God  could  perform,  while  they  are  signs 
of  his  great  supernatural  work  in  conquering 
evil.  We  look  at  the  general  doctrine,  and  we 
find  it  true  to  the  character  of  God,   and  the 

X 


322  TEE  E  VIDENCES 

character  of  man,  as  revealed  by  nature,  above 
v^hich,  however,  it  rises  in  an  immeasurable 
degree.  We  look  at  the  precept;  we  lind  it 
worthy  of  God,  and  suited  to  man  as  a  sinner 
returning  to  God.  We  look  to  the  functions 
of  the  Church,  and  we  find  it  a  peace-giving  and 
purifying  element  in  the  world.  Or  we  look 
first,  and  we  look  finally,  and  w^e  ever  look  most 
fondly,  to  the  person  and  the  character  of  Jesus, 
and  we  see  that  he  has  come  from  God  even  as 
he  has  gone  to  God;  that  he  came  down  from 
heaven  to  establish  a  reign  of  heaven  on  earth, 
and  to  carry  up  to  heaven  a  people  from  the 
earth.  Every  one  of  these  considerations  carries 
its  weight,  which  will  be  felt  more  or  less  by 
different  minds.  Each  seems  to  shew  that  the 
religion  wdiich  embraces  them  must  be  Divine. 
But  their  overwhelming  force  arises  from  their 
being  each  a  system,  and  connected  parts  of 
one  great  and  consistent  system,  which  must  be 
supernatural. 

Much  of  the  controversy  in  the  Christian 
Evidences  has  turned  round  the  subject  of 
testimony.  Deistical  writers  have  shewn  how 
testimony  is  often  untrustworthy,  especially 
when  detailing  matters  which  excite  wonder. 
Dr.  Chalmers,  on  the  other  hand,  has  argued  that 
the  testimony  of  witnesses  of  a  certain  character 
is  such  that  the  improbability  of  their  telling  a 


OF  CHRISTIAXITY.  o  lo 

falsehood  is,  to  say  the  least  of  it,  as  great  as  the 
improbabihty  of  an  interference  with  the  laws  of 
nature.  The  defenders  of  Christianity  have  la- 
boured to  prove,  and  have  succeeded  in  proving, 
that  we  have  as  full  evidence  of  the  genuineness 
of  the  books  of  the  New  Testament,  as  we  have 
of  that  of  any  other  work  handed  down  to  us 
from  antiquity ;  and  that  there  are  witnesses  in 
favour  of  certain  central  events,  such  as  the 
crucifixion  and  resurrection  of  Jesus,  quite  as 
trustworthy  as  there  are  in  behalf  of  any  occur- 
rence in  ancient  times.  But  it  is  a  great  misap- 
prehension and  mistake  to  suppose  that  the 
Christian  Evidences  lean  entirely,  or  even 
mainly,  on  evidence  derived  from  testimony; 
and  it  is  not  wise  in  certain  apologists  to  make 
the  whole  hang  on  one  thread,  when  we  have  a 
"triple  cord  which  cannot  be  broken."  In  re- 
gard to  many  of  the  evidences,  we  are  dependent 
on  testimony  only  to  the  very  smallest  possible 
extent, — to  no  greater  extent  than  the  astrono- 
mer or  the  geologist  is  wdien  he  uses  reports 
drawn  out  by  observers  in  various  parts  of  the 
world,  he  himself  being  all  the  while  quite 
competent  to  test  their  credibility.  We  must 
have  it  certified  that  the  Scriptures  have  come 
down  to  us  frcnn  a  very  old  date,  and  that  they 
were  written  by  persons  in  the  land  of  Judea; 
but  with  a  very  few  such  facts  given  or  granted. 


324  THE  EVIDEXCES 

\ 

wa  are  prepared  to  apprehend  and  appreciate  the 
force  of  by  far  the  greater  part  of  the  Christian 
Evidences,  and  particuLirly  of  all  the  Internal 
Evidences  ;  and  if  we  are  led  by  these  to  add 
the  Experimental  Evidence,  derived  from  the 
power  of  religion  in  and  over  the  heart,  we  have 
gained  a  conviction  which  can  never  be  shaken. 
For  the  question  now  is,  not  whether  testimony 
may  not  be  fallacious,  but  whether  all  the  evi- 
dence, external  and  internal,  can  possibly  be 
deceptive. 

I  allow  freely  that  a  wide  experience  has  settled 
that  there  is  a  system  of  nature.  But  I  claim 
that  a  large  observation,  coupled  with  deep 
thoughts  and  deep  convictions,  has  determined 
that  there  is  also  a  preternatural  system.  Prin- 
cipal Campbell,  in  his  reply  to  Hume's  objections 
to  Miracles,  supposes  that  a  person  had  lived  for 
some  years  near  a  ferry,  and  that  he  had  seen  the 
passage-boat  cross  the  river  a  thousand  times  in 
safety ;  this  experience,  he  argues,  would  not  en- 
title him  to  disbelieve  the  statement  of  a  credible 
witness  who  comes  and  tells  him  that  he  has  just 
seen  the  same  boat  overwhelmed.  This  illustra- 
tion will  suit  our  present  purpose,  if  we  are 
allowed  to  modify  it.  Let  us  suppose  that  the 
person  had  seen  the  ferry-boat  cross  day  after 
day  with  wonderful  regularity,  but  had  observed 
that  on  certain  days  it  did  not  ply  as  usual,  and 


OF  CURISriAXITY.  '>  -^  ^ 

that,  on  more  careful  inquiry,  he  found  that  the 
days  on  which  it  rested  were  Sundays  ;  he  would 
now  have  the  general  rule,  hut  hd^would  also, 
have  the  rule  of  the  exceptions,  and  he  would 
see  the  propriety  of  hoth — tlie  one  being  for 
secular  good,  and  the  other  to  proniote  sacred 
ends.  The  case  is  very  analogous  to  what  we 
have  in  our  w^orld ;  we  observe  a  uniformity  in 
nature  to  meet  man's  intelligence'  and  'con- 
venience, and  possibly  to  serve  many  other  ends  ; 
but  our  attention  is  also  called  to  a  course  of 
supernatural  action,  coincident  with  the  natural, 
and  joining  on  to  it,  to  meet  man's  spiritual 
wants,  and  to  harmonize  heaven  and  earth, — the 
two  being,  after  all,  the  essential  parts  of  one 
comprehensive  system,  the  outward  and  inner 
compartments  of  one  grand  temple. 

II.  This  systematic  character  of  revelation 
makes  it  impossible  for  us  to  explain  it  by  natu- 
ral agency. 

It  is  now  acknowledged,  that  the  old  natural- 
istic explanations ,  are  all  failures.  Every  one 
now  sees  that  we  cannot  account  for  the  Chris- 
tian religion  by  a  studious  deception.  This 
hypothesis,  with  the  aid  of  a  considerable 
straining  and  perversion,  might  be  held  as 
explaining  certain  very  small  parts  here  and 
there;  but  it  furnishes  no  plausible  account 
of  the  whole,  which,  because  of  its  comprehen- 


326 


THE  EVIBENCES 


siveness,  could  not  have  proceeded  from  one 
mind,  and  because  of  its  consistency  and  con- 
nexions reaching  through  long  ages,  could  not 
have  sprung  from  a  concurrence  of  minds  all 
bent  upon  deceit.  It  is  just  as  clear  that  it 
could  not  have  been  fashioned  by  enthusiasm 
and  superstition,  whi(di,  in  their  extensive  sway, 
shew  that  man  is  a  religious  being,  but  which, 
from  their  very  nature,  lead  only  to  incongruous 
and  inconsistent  results.  Nor  will  the  union  of 
the  two, — of  deceit  with  genuine  but  deluded 
feeling, — render  any  reasons  for  a  system  which 
embraces  holy  doctrine  and  high  morality,  and 
connected  events,  which  run  through  long  suc- 
cessive ages,  and  are  brought  about  unconsciously 
by  persons  utterly  ignorant  of  the  ends  accom- 
plished by  them. 

The  more  modern  theories  equally  fail.  The 
hypothesis  of  Paulus,  that  the  Gospel  narratives 
were  natural  occurrences  misunderstood  and  mis- 
interpreted, has  now  no  supporters.  Whatever 
superficial  plausibility  it  might  have,  as  applied 
to  a  veiy  few  isolated  incidents,  it  was  seen 
to  be  utterly  incapable  of  accounting  for  the 
whole  series  in  its  integrity  and  connexions,  and 
it  had  no  explanation  to  give  of  the  high  morality 
and  the  holy  doctrine  which  are  imbedded  in  the 
heart  of  such  an  accumulation  of  supposed  mis- 
apprehensions and  perversions.     This  weak  sup- 


OF  CHlilSTIAXITT. 


327 


position  has  given  way  to  another — the  hist  re- 
source of  infidehty, — and  it,  too,  is  now  being 
seen  to  be  as  signal  a  failure  as  the  others. 

It  is  alleged  that  the  whole  supposed  super- 
natural system  has  sprung  from  those  principles 
of  human  nature  which  produce  myths  in  all 
countries.  As  long  as  it  wraps  itself  up  in  vague 
general  statements,  it  is  difficult  to  fight  with 
this  theory,  which,  when  it  is  caught  in  one 
shape,  quickly  assumes  another.  But  when  it 
takes  the  form  of  affirming  that  the  Scriptures 
are  a  myth,  or  a  series  of  myths,  it  can  be  satis- 
factorily met  and  overthrown. 

Of  late  years  a  vast  amount  of  curious  infor- 
mation has  been  collected,  and  a  great  deal  of 
speculative  and  learned  sense  and  nonsense 
has  been  written,  about  myths.  Myths  are,  in 
fact,  stories  embodying  and  expressing  a  pre- 
vailing belief  or  feeling  in  a  family,  a  district,  or 
a  nation.  Sometimes  they  had  a  foundation 
in  historical  incidents,  which,  however,  have 
been  so  buried  in  the  accumulated  additions, 
that  it  is  impossible  to  find  the  fact  in  the  fable. 
Sometimes  they  are  mere  fictions  got  up  (like 
the  modern  romance)  to  please  the  phantasy 
and  move  the  feelings — not  unfrequently,  I  sus- 
pect, of  chil(h-en,  and  in  all  cases  of  a  people 
credulous  as  children.  At  times  they  are  after- 
inventions  to  explain  or  justify  certain  beliefs 


^  ^  o  THE  EVIDENCES 

and  prepossessions.  In  order  to  be  myths,  and 
not  mere  tales  or  legends,  they  must  express  a 
reigning  sentiment  in  a  community,  and  it  is 
thus  they  pass  so  readily  from  individual  to  in- 
dividual in  the  region  in  which  the  feeling  pre- 
vails, and  are  handed  down  from  one  generation 
to  another,  and  often  go  in  a  somewdiat  modified 
form  with  colonists  into  their  new  country.  The 
myths  may  relate  to  anything  that  interests  a 
people,  to  the  honour  of  the  family  or  nation,  to 
the  romance  of  love  or  of  war,  or  to  the  character 
and  worship  of  the  gods. 

The  religious  myth  is  expressive  of  the  reli- 
gious beliefs  of  the  tribe  or  country.  It  arises 
out  of  the  anterior  sentiments  of  the  people,  and 
it  reacts  upon  these  sentiments,  especially  in  the 
way  of  giving  a  form  to  what  was  before  germi- 
nant  but  shapeless.  It  springs  spontaneously 
from  certain  deep  mental  tendencies  : — it  has  its 
root  in  the  religious  instincts  of  our  nature;  and 
the  tale  is  fashioned  to  gratify  the  phantasy  or 
imaging  faculty;  and  to  furnish  a  body  in  which 
the  feeling  may  dwell,  and  become  objective  and 
visible.  Existing  first  in  a  floating  oral  form,  it 
may  have  a  permanence  given  to  it  by  being 
embodied  in  written  poetry  or  prose ;  at  times  a 
selfish  interest  has  been  created  in  its  favour  by 
its  becoming  associated  with  a  particular  shrine 
or  temple.     Eeligious   myths  spring  up  in  all 


OF  CHRISTIANITY. 


820 


countries,  till  the  critical  spirit  rises,  to  suppress 
them,  or  mankind  have  something  hetter  sup- 
plied to  them  in  the  Word  of  God.  As  they  are 
the  product  of  human  nature  and  of  the  circum- 
stances of  the  people,  so  they  fully  reflect  these. 
It  has  heen  shown  that  they  follow  some  sort  of 
laws,  which  have  heen  traced  with  amazing  eru- 
dition and  excessive  ingenuity  by  German  critics. 
All  these  laborious  researches  have  only  shewn 
how  wide  the  difference  between  the  myths 
of  the  Gentiles,  and  the  narratives  of  the  Old 
Testament  and  the  doctrines  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment. 

It  holds  true  of  all  myths,  that  they  are 
polytheistic.  They  originate  always  in  a  state 
of  society  in  which  it  is  the  tendency  of  mankind 
to  call  in  a  multitude  of  gods,  to  meet  their  rude 
w^ants,  and  to  account  for  what  they  see.  This 
is  the  first  and  a  fundamental  distinction  be- 
tw^een  them  and  the  Scriptures,  which  are 
throughout  a  protest  against  polytheism.  Again, 
the  tales  comprised  in  the  myths,  at  least  when 
they  become  numerous,  are  always  incongruous 
and  inconsistent.  Springing  up  in  divers  places, 
and  variously  reported  as  they  pass  from  mouth 
to  mouth,  no  attempt  is  made  to  render  them 
harmonious  till  the  critical  ages  arrive,  and  then 
they  cease  to  have  power.  All  later  historians 
have  ceased  to  try  to  bring  a  connected  train  of 


130 


TEE  ETIDEXCES 


events  out  of  myths;  Mr.  Grote,  for  example, 
makes  no  attempt  to  draw  history  out  of  the 
hunting  of  the  hoar  of  Calydon,  of  the  Argonau- 
tic  expedition,  and  the  siege  of  Troy.  This  is  a 
second  point  of  difference  between  myths  and  the 
writings  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament,  in 
which  we  have  a  long  series  of  connected  narra- 
tives palpably  consistent  with  one  another,  and 
with  external  history — despite  the  few  seeming 
discrepancies  which  we  may  not  be  able  to  clear 
up.  No  one  attempts  to  confirm  Homer,  or  He- 
siod,  or  the  gigantic  myths  of  Brahminism  and 
Buddhism  by  historical  incidents,  such  as  we 
can  bring  to  corroborate  Scripture  from  the 
tombs  of  Egypt,  from  the  sculptured  slabs  of 
Nineveh,  and  from  the  works  of  such  writers  as 
Josephus  and  Tacitus. 

Myths,  as  they  spring  from  human  nature, 
so  they  faithfully  represent  it — in  its  strength, 
but  also  in  its  weakness.  In  giving  expression 
to  the  religious  fears  and  hopes  of  man,  they 
likewise  display  the  foibles,  the  aberrations,  the 
sins  of  humanity.  Proceeding  from  the  human 
heart,  they  can  never  rise  above  the  level  of  the 
fountain  whence  they  issued.  They  are  all 
marred,  less  or  more,  by  caprices,  by  impurities, 
or  by  awful  cruelties,  supposed  to  be  perpetrated 
by  their  very  gods.  This  is  the  tliircl  and  the 
most    important    point    of    difference    betweeu 


OF  CHRISTIANITY.  Ooi 

lliem  and  the  views  of  God,  and  of  Christ,  and 
of  morahty,  presented  in  the  Scriptures,  say  in 
the  Discourses  of  our  Lord  and  the  Epistles  of 
Paul  and  John.  It  has  heen  maintained,  that 
these  last  are  myths  growing  out  of  the  religious 
consciousness  of  the  times.  In  opposition  to 
this  allegation  it  has  heen  shewn,  that  the 
Gospel  narratives  and  the  Epistles  appeared 
far  too  soon  after  the  time  of  the  death  of  elesus 
to  allow  of  the  growth  of  myths.  It  has  heen 
shewn,  too,  that  there  was  nothing  in  Jewish 
feeling,  nothing  in  Phariseeism,  or  Sadduceeism, 
or  Essene  mysticism,  nothing  in  Eastern  or 
Alexandrian  theosophies,  nothing  in  the  reli- 
gious feeling  of  all  these  countries,  to  generate 
those  high  and  yet  tender,  those  suhlime  and 
yet  practical,  views  of  God  and  his  interest  in 
mankind  wdiich  are  given  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment. But  the  strongest  ground  which  we 
can  take  up  in  reply  to  the  mythic  theory  is, 
that  no  Gentile  myths  have  ever  given  us  any 
such  high  and  holy  pictures,  as  we  have  pre- 
sented to  us  in  the  life  of  Christ,  and  in  the 
doctrine  and  precepts  of  tlie  New  Testament. 
These  arose,  it  is  said,  out  of  the  religious  con- 
sciousness of  the  times  !  But  how  do  we  get  a 
religious  consciousness  that  would  yield  such  a 
product — an  earthly  soil  or  an  earthly  seed  which 
w^ould  produce   such   a   plant  ?      It    has    heen 


o 


32  THE  EVIBENCES 


shewn  again  and  again,  that  there  are  far  greater 
difficulties  involved  in  supposing  that  the  life  of 
Jesus  is  an  idea  evoked  out  of  human  nature, 
than  in  at  once  allowing  it  to  be  a  reality/'' 

The  extensive  inductions  which  have  been 
gathered  by  later  research  as  to  myths,  their 
nature  and  their  laws,  all  go  to  prove  that  the 
Scripture  narratives  and  doctrines  differ  from 
them  in  their  whole  letter  and  spirit. 

But  wdiile  all  this  is  resolutely  maintained,  it 
is  not  needful  to  affirm  that  there  is  no  resem- 
blance whatever  between  any  portion  of  Scripture 
and  the  spontaneous  myths  of  the  Gentile  na- 
tions. It  is  conceivable  that  a  likeness  might 
arise  from  two  circumstances,  both  of  them  quite 
consistent  with  the  inspiration  of  the  Word  of 
God.  One  is,  that  the  deeper  religious  myths 
are  the  expressions  of  the  religious  feelings  of 
mankind,  which  ever  hold  in  solution  a  consider- 
able body  of  important  truth.  I  believe  that 
this  arises  in  part  from  the  traditions  of  primitive 
faith  which  have  been  preserved  in  most  nations, 
but  mainly  from  the  fact  that  man  has  a  deep 
religious  nature  which  ever  seeks  an  outlet.  In 
particular,  man  has  ever  spontaneously  held  by 
two  deep  convictions,  that  there  are  supernatural 

*  It  is  scarcely  necessary,  in  this  connexion,  to  refer  to  two  such, 
well-known  works  as  "Taylor's  Eestoration of  Belief,"  and  "Young's 
Christ  of  History." 


OF  CURISTIANiry. 


333 


powers,  and  that  lie  as  a  sinner  has  given  offence 
to  them.  Out  of  these  two  strong  impulses  have 
arisen,  in  heathen  countries,  a  body  of  rites  and 
concomitant  myths,  which  bear  a  rude  resem- 
blance to  certain  ordinances  and  narratives  of 
Scripture,  bearing  on  the  relation  of  God  and 
man.  It  may  be  admitted,  that  in  some  of  the 
Eastern  religions  there  is  a  dim  appreciation  of 
the  duty  of  rising  above  the  pollutions  of  the 
flesh ;  that  in  Buddhism,  and  many  forms  of 
mysticism,  there  is  an  ill-directed  aspiration  after 
a  closer  communion  with  God  ;  and  that  even 
in  those  stern  superstitions  which  demanded 
that  on  great  emergencies  parents  should  make 
their  children  pass  through  the  fire,  there  was  a 
sense  of  the  need  of  an  atonement ;  and  from 
these  profound  causes  myths  may  at  times  have 
some  things  in  common  with  Scripture.  Nor  do 
I  see  evil  likely  to  arise  from  making  a  farther 
admission.  We  have  seen  that  the  natural  mind 
of  the  prophet  was  not  destroyed  in  the  utter- 
ances which  came  from  him.  As  Moses  and 
Ezekiel  both  used  the  Hebrew  language  as  they 
found  it,  it  is  also  conceivable  that  the  former  may 
have  taken  some  of  his  symbols  from  Egypt,  and 
the  latter  much  of  his  imagery  from  the  figures 
on  the  temples  and  palaces  of  Assyria.  It  is 
certain  that  the  inspired  ideas  of  the  older  pro- 
phets would,  if  left  to  their  spontaneous  flow. 


oo-i:  TEE  EVIBEXCES 

come  out  in  forms  analogous  to  the  myths  of  the 
poets  and  sages  of  tlie  Gentile  nations;  and  I 
see  no  reason  why  God  should  have  interfered 
with  the  sinless  powers  of  the  prophets  in  the 
way  of  mutilating  them, — the  more  so  as  what 
came  naturally  from  the  heads  of  the  waiters 
would  go  home  most  effectively  to  the  intelli- 
gence of  the  readers.  But  all  this  applies  only 
to  the  earlier  prophets.  In  the  course  of  ages 
there  came  to  be  a  set  of  wTiters  educated  up  to 
higher  conceptions,  and  a  class  of  readers  ready 
to  understand  them.  In  the  New  Testament 
the  special  resemblance  to  myths  altogether 
ceases.  There  are  still  parables  and  symbols 
addressed  to  the  phantasy,  and  narratives  of  such 
simplicity  that  babes  drink  them  with  eagerness, 
but  these  have  no  likeness  to  myths ;  and 
mingled  with  them  we  have  brief  sentences, 
which  combine  the  lights  from  a  thousand  points 
into  one  bright  focus  which  renders  everything 
luminous. 

III.  The  circumstance  that  there  is  a  super- 
natural economy  in  the  midst  of  the  natural, 
entitles  us  to  regard  certain  events  as  preter- 
natural, which  we  might  not  have  been  able  to 
prove  to  be  so,  had  they  stood  alone  and  isolated 
from  the  system.  The  most  rigid  believer  in 
natural  law,  were  he  to  look  at  certain  phe- 
nomena  apart   from   his    settled   belief  in    tho 


OF  CHRISTIAmiY.  ^oJ 

prevalence  of  uniformity,  might  be  inclined   to 
admit  that  they  are  under  no  law,  but  holding 
by  his  general   conviction  he   at  once   declares 
them  to  be  natural  in  spite  of  appearances.     It 
may,  in  like  manner,  be  admitted  liy  the  most 
determined    adherent    of  superuaturalism,    that 
there  are  incidents  recorded  in  Scripture  which, 
if  viewed  apart  from  their  connexions,  might  be 
represented  as  flowing  entirely  from  human  or 
mundane  agencies ;    but  when  we  find  them  to 
be  parts  of  the  heavenly  revelation,  we  declare, 
and  are  entitled  to  declare  them  to  be  super- 
natural,  or  at  least  providential.     Just  as   our 
reasonable  conviction  of  the  existence  of  a  natural 
system  makes  us  claim  for  nature  much  which 
we  might,   on  the  first  impression,  have  been 
inclined  to  place  beyond  it,  so  our  equally  rea- 
sonable conviction  as  to  a  supernatural  economy 
authorizes  us  to  refer  to  the  immediate  opera- 
tions of  God  not  a  fev\^  things,  which  we  might 
otherwise  have  ascribed  to  the  agency  of  mun- 
dane causes. 

IV.  The  systematic  character  of  revelation 
enables  us  to  get  tests  of  the  supernatural.  It  is 
in  consequence  of  nature  being  a  system,  that  we 
are  able  to  determine,  in  most  cases  with  con- 
siderable ease,  what  is  natural  and  what  is 
not  natural.  Nature  has  everywhere  a  certain 
method  or  style  or  aspect,  which  enables  us  to 


336  TEE  EVIDENCES 

recognize  what  belongs  to  her  domains,  and  to 
distinguish  between  what  is  natural  and  what  is 
artificial  or  unnatural  or  preternatural.  We  can 
commonly  distinguish  at  once  between  what  is 
produced  by  physical  agency  and  what  is  effected 
by  human  skill.  The  naturahst  rejects  at  once 
the  stories  about  the  mermaid,  the  unicorn,  and 
the  sea  serpent,  because  such  creatures  are  not 
in  conformity  with  the  homologies  of  the  animal 
kingdom.  We  pay  no  attention  to  the  common 
ghost  stories,  because  they  carry  us  into  a  pre- 
ternatural region.  But  Revelation  comes  to  us 
also  as  a  system,  with  its  laws,  its  analogies,  and 
its  doctrines.  It  all  revolves  round  one  central 
point, — round  the  Incarnation  of  the  Son  of  God 
for  the  purpose  of  bringing  a  lapsed  world  into  a 
state  of  reconciliation  with  its  own  Governor. 
By  the  careful  examination  of  it  we  may,  in  a 
general  way,  ascertain  what  is  its  method  of  pro- 
cedure ;  what  is  in  accordance  with  it,  and  what 
is  not  in  accordance  with  it;  what  are  the  means 
it  may  employ,  and  what  the  means  it  cannot 
sanction. 

It  may  now  be  asked.  How  should  we  deal, 
according  to  the  principles  reached  in  these 
discussions,  with  the  common  pretensions  to  pre- 
ternaturalism  ?  Some  one  tells  us  an  ordinary 
ghost  story,  about  a  person  whom  he  knows 
Laving   in   a  dark   night    seen   a   white   figure 


OF  CHRISTIANITY,  337 

moving  and  glaring  at  him.  How  are  we  to 
treat  the  narrative  ?  It  is  clear,  on  the  instant, 
that  the  supposed  facts  do  not  connect  them- 
selves with  that  supernatural  system  for  which 
we  have  such  a  body  of  evidence.  The  story, 
tlien,  cannot  derive  any  prepossession  in  its 
favour  from  Eevelation.  It  must  stand  or  fall  on 
its  own  merits.  Now,  it  has  been  ascertained, 
by  a  long  induction  not  contradicted  by  any 
authenticated  case,  that  ghosts  are  not  among 
mundane  agencies;  that  the  dead  do  not  rise 
again  to  take  a  part  in  the  affairs  of  this  world. 
In  the  cases  of  the  kind  wdiich  we  have  been  at 
the  trouble  to  inquire  into,  we  have  found  the 
tale  to  grow  very  much  in  the  reporting  and  as 
it  passed  from  mouth  to  mouth ;  and  when,  at 
last,  we  got  at  the  exact  facts,  we  found  that 
the  supposed  supernatural  figure  was  simply  an 
earthly  object  imperfectly  seen,  or  that  it  w^as 
a  mental  image  called  up  by  fear,  which  so 
affected  the  brain  that  the  person  imagined 
that  what  he  saw  was  an  actual  figure.  Believ- 
ing that  the  whole  can  be  accounted  for  in  this, 
or  in  a  similar  way,  we  fall  back  on  the  uni- 
formity of  nature  as  the  general  law,  and  think 
ourselves  quite  justified,  while  important  duties 
devolve  upon  us  in  this  busy  world,  to  make  no 
farther  inquiries  into  the  matter.  In  acting 
thus,  we  do  not  go  the  unreasonable  length  of 

Y 


338 


THE  EVIDENCES 


affirming,  that  a  narrative  of  a  jDreternatural 
event — that  even  a  ghost  story — could  not  pos- 
sibly be  true,  or  could  not  possibly  be  proven. 
Still  less  do  we  act  on  any  principle  which 
would,  in  the  least  degree,  interfere  with  the 
powerful  evidence,  derived  from  so  many  sources, 
which  we  have  in  favour  of  Christianity.  We 
simply  say,  that  we  have  no  proof,  and  are  not 
likely  to  get  any  proof,  to  counterbalance  the 
improbability  of  such  a  preternatural  occurrence, 
which  is  in  its  whole  nature  different  from  the 
miracles  of  Scripture. 

These  same  principles  may  guide  us  in  the 
view  which  we  should  take  of  mesmerism,  and 
clairvoyance,  and  spirit-rapping.  As  to  mes- 
merism, there  is  every  reason  to  believe  that 
there  is  a  series  of  phenomena  which  may  go 
by  this  name — till  their  nature  has  been  more 
thoroughly  explored.  But  mesmeric  affections 
so  connect  themselves  with  certain  pathological 
states  of  the  body  and  psychological  facts,  that 
we  at  once  declare  them  to  be  natural,  and  hope 
at  last  to  discover  the  laws  which  they  obey. 
As  to  clairvoyance,  it  is  certainly  opposed  to  the 
whole  analogy  of  nature  as  disclosed  by  modern 
science.  It  is  also  and  equally  inconsistent 
with  the  whole  analogy  of  the  supernatural  reve- 
lation of  God  in  the  Word,  for  nowhere  in  that 
revelation  is  there  a  miraculous  event  reported 


OF  CHRISTIANITY,  339 

except  as  vouching  for,  or  as  a  part  of,  the  plan  of 
redemption.  Clairvoyance  has  thus  the  analogy 
hoth  of  the  mundane  and  revealed  system,  against 
it.  I  do  not  say,  that  it  could  not  possibly  be 
substantiated  by  evidence,  but  the  proof  urged 
in  its  behalf  is  of  far  too  uncertain,  and  at  times 
suspicious,  a  character  to  bear  up  the  superstruc- 
ture. In  regard  to  most  of  the  pretended  cases, 
I  think  we  are  entitled  at  once  to  reject  them 
without  farther  inquiry,  and,  as  to  others,  which 
may  look  more  fair  and  plausible,  it  is  enough 
to  ask  the  supporters  of  them  to  submit  to  such 
scientific  tests  as  those  to  which  table-turnincr 
was  subjected  by  Faraday.  What  is  now  said  of 
clain^oyance  applies  also  to  spirit-rapping.  But 
if  ever  such  phenomena  are  established  on  good 
authority, — which  they  have  not  hitherto  been, 
and,  as  I  think,  are  not  likely  to  be, — we  would 
seek  to  construct  them  into  a  system,  natural,  or 
preternatural,  or  half  way  between ;  and  then  we 
might  have  rules  by  which  to  disthiguish  be- 
tween real  and  pretended  cases.  Meanwhile,  the 
established  systems  of  God,  both  natural  and 
supernatural,  are  against  all  such  pretensions. 

The  principles  here  enunciated,  and  so  far 
applied,  shew  at  once  how  we  are  to  answer  Mr. 
Powell,  when  he  would  place  the  record  of  the 
miracles  of  Scripture  alongside  of  the  ordinary 
tales  about  ghosts,  mermaids,  and  witches. 


34.0  ANALOGY  BETWEEN  THE  NATUIiAL 


CHAPTER  IV. 

ANALOGY  BETWEEN  THE  NATURAL  AND  SUPEE- 
NATURAL  SYSTEMS. 

The  word  "  analogy"  is  frec[uentlj  used  in  our 
common  literature  as  synonymous  with  "  resem- 
blance," and  denotes  a  likeness  of  any  kind. 
But  it  has  a  more  narrow  and  technical  signifi- 
cation, and  denotes  a  resemblance  of  relations. 
Thus  we  speak  by  ''analogy"  of  a  particular  prin- 
ciple acting  as  the  foundation  of  an  argument, 
meaning  that  the  principle  has  a  like  relation  to 
the  conclusion,  as  the  foundation  has  to  the 
building  erected  on  it.  In  natural  history,  the 
wing  of  a  bird  and  the  wing  of  a  butterfly  are 
not  reckoned  the  same  organs,  but  they  are  said 
to  be  analogous,  because  to  the  animals  they  dis- 
charge the  same  functions.  In  this  Chapter  the 
pln-ase  is  employed  in  the  more  rigid  sense.  I 
am  to  gather  out  of  the  preceding  discussions 
the  points  of  resemblance  between  the  natural 
and  supernatural  systems,  in  their  relation  to 
God  on  the  one  hand,  and  to  man  on  the  other. 
I  do  not  go  so  far  as  to  maintain  that  this  single 


AND  SUPERNATURAL  SYSTEMS.  ^^i 

circumstance  does  of  itself  prove  the  religious 
?ysteui  to  be  supernatural  and  to  have  the  sanc- 
tion of  God.  But  taken  along  with  other  facts 
and  considerations,  it  has  a  considerable  amount 
of  force  in  shewing  that  the  two  came  from  the 
same  Being.  In  a  negative  way,  it  has  great 
power  in  answering  objections  derived  from  the 
alleged  anomalous  or  lawless  character  of  the 
supernatural.  Taking  the  lowest  ground,  it 
should  lead  all  who  believe  in  the  natural  as  a 
manifestation  of  God  to  give  their  candid  con- 
sideration to  the  professedly  supernatural  system, 
which  so  corresponds  to  and  so  fits  into  the 
natural. 

I.  In  both  we  discover  a  plan  developed  in 
connected  acts.  Nature  is  not  a  wayless  waste  ; 
it  is  a  rich  territoiy,  divided,  allotted,  and  fenced 
with  alleys  to  walk  in,  and  a  provision  for  the 
wants  of  those  who  dwell  in  it.  There  are  dif- 
ferent systems  in  nature — as  there  are  different 
systems  in  the  animal  body ;  but  as  in  the 
animal  frame  the  various  parts  constitute  one 
living  being,  so  in  the  physical  universe  the 
different  portions  are  made  to  constitute  one 
Cosmos.  But  we  have  seen  that  there  is  a  like 
ordination  and  subordination  in  Revelation.  The 
parts,  such  as  the  history,  the  ordinances,  the 
prophecy,  the  doctrine,  constitute  systems,  which 
again  combine  in  one  grand  system,  with  the 


342 


ANALOGY  BETWEEN  THE  NATURAL 


Loo'os  as  thfe  central  attraction  and  the  central 
light.  The  order  of  the  universe  shews  that  it 
had  been  purposed^  in  the  Divine  Mind  in  eter- 
nity; it  also  makes  it  comprehensible  by  man, 
and  invites  him  to  derive  instruction  from  it, 
and  to  accommodate  his  actions  to  it.  Similar 
ends  are  accomplished  by  the  methodical  charac- 
ter of  revelation ;  we  are  enabled  thereby  to  rise 
to  some  comprehension  of  it,  to  fall  in  practically 
with  its  mode  of  procedure,  and  to  discover  in 
it  a  manifestation  of  the  Divine  perfections  and 
the  evolution  of  an  eternal  counsel. 

II.  In  both  there  is  a  progressive  plan.  The 
progressive  plan  of  nature  is  seen  specially  in 
the  science  of  geology.  It  should  be  freely  ad- 
mitted that  we  cannot  at  this  present  time  draw 
out  a  perfect  reconciliation  of  Scripture  and 
geology,  as  to  the  appearance  of  the  hving  beings 
on  the  earth's  surface.  On  the  one  hand,  we 
are  not  quite  sure  how  to  read  the  record  in  the 
two  opening  chapters  of  Genesis ;  and  on  the 
other  hand,  geology,  in  opening  new  truths,  is  at 
the  same  time  ever  disclosing  new  mysteries. 
But  on  the  very  face  of  the  two  records — the 
record  on  parchment  and  that  on  stone — there 
is  a  general  correspondence.  Both  tell  us  that 
there  w^as  a  time  when  there  were  no  plants,  no 
animals  on  the  earth.  The  latest  science  seems 
to  accord  with  the  Word  of  God,  in  declaring 


AND  SUPERNATURAL  SYSTEBIS.  343 

that  the  earth  is  older  than  the  sun  ;  that  there 
were  epochs  in  our  earth's  history  when  it  was 
illuminated  by  a  general  light,  ere  that  light  had 
been  concentrated  into  a  central  sun.  Both  an- 
nounce that  there  has  been  a  progression,  from 
the  lower  to  the  higher,  in  the  appearance  of 
plants  and  animals  on  the  earth's  surface.  Both 
assure  us  that  man  came  upon  the  scene  at  a 
comparatively  late  date.  These  are  surely  very 
wonderful  correspondences,  which  should  keep 
all  men  of  science  from  scoffing  at  the  narrative  in 
the  Word  of  God.  For  when  science  was  entirely 
ignorant  of  all  this,  it  was  written  there  in  a 
Book,  the  general  meaning  of  which  is  clear  and 
explicit.''' 

*  I  have  often  tiLOught  that,  in  order  to  settle  the  questions  agitated, 
we  would  require  to  know  what  was  the  nature  of  the  transaction  tvhich 
issued  in  man  appearing  upon  the  earth.  Can  we  be  wrong  in  guessing 
that  the  mystery  which  yet  hangs  over  the  thorough  reconciliation  of 
the  two  records,  Mosaic  and  Geological,  will  be  cleared  up  when  the 
nature  of  this  transaction  is  made  known  to  us, — it  may  be,  in  this 
world  as  science  advances,  it  may  be,  only  in  the  world  to  come  ? 
Who  will  venture  to  afl&rm  that  the  God  who  has  proceeded  from  the 
beginning  in  our  Cosmos  according  to  the  method  of  type,  that  is, 
model  or  exemplar,  by  animal  type  in  the  geological  ages,  by  human 
but  still  outward  type  in  the  Old  Testament  dispensation,  and  even 
now  by  more  spiritual  iy^Q  in  the  New  Testament  Church,  may  not 
have  proceeded  by  type  likewise  in  that  necessarily  wonderful  transac- 
tion which  ushered  man  upon  the  scene  ?  Yon  Baer  has  shewn  that  the 
development  of  the  animal  in  the  womb  proceeds  according  to  a  prede- 
termined plan,  advancing  from  the  more  general  to  the  more  special- 
Professor  Owen  and  Dr.  Carpenter  have  shewn  pretty  satisfactorily, 
that  there  is  a  parallel  advance  in  the  production  of  animals  in  the 
geological  ages, — an  advance  from  the  more  general  to  the  more  special. 


344 


ANALOGY  BETWEEN  THE  NATURAL 


But  the  correspondence  to  which  I  refer  under 
this  head,  is  not  that  hetween  geological  science 
and  the  Book  of  Genesis,  but  between  the  pro- 
gressive work  on  the  earth's  surface  and  the 
progressive  character  of  the  work  of  redemption. 
In  geology,  we  have  stratum  superimposed  upon 
stratum  in  due  order,  and  a  pre-ordained  advance 
from  the  lower  to  the  higher  plant  and  animal, 
the  earlier  being  prefigurations  and  prognostics 
of  the  later.  And  in  the  history  of  redemption 
we  have  layer  added  to  layer,  and  lower  life  ever 

If  these  views  be  correct, — and  they  are  held  by  the  highest  authori- 
ties,— then  the  growth  of  the  higher  animals  in  the  womb  is  of  the  same 
type  as  the  successive  creations  revealed  in  geology.  It  has  also  been 
shewn  by  geologists  that  the  existing  order  in  organic  forms  is  a  type 
of  the  geologic  order  in  time.  Who  will  venture  to  say,  then,  that  the 
mysterious  transaction  at  man's  creation  was  not  an  epitome,  a  type,  of 
what  had  gone  before,  just  as  the  scarcely  less  mysterious  transac- 
tion of  the  infant's  growth  in  the  womb  is  a  type  of  all  Palseontology  .> 
The  account  in  Genesis  may  thus  be  a  description  of  six  literal  days,  aa 
representative  of  six  epochs,  just  as  our  Lord's  prediction  of  the  destruc- 
tion of  Jerusalem  has,  through  it,  a  reference  to  the  final  day.  Every 
student  of  ecclesiastical  history  knows  that  the  experience  of  the 
individual  Christian  is  an  epitome  of  the  experience  of  the  Church  at 
large,  as  a  heavenly  life  in  the  midst  of  opposing  corruption.  Should  there 
be  any  truth  in  this  view,  the  transaction  recorded  in  the  opening  of 
Genesis  may  not  be  a  mere  vision,  but  a  reality, — a  reality  supernatural, 
but  in  harmony  with  all  natural  operation,  which  is,  after  all,  Divine 
operation, — a  reality  instructive  as  any  vision, — a  reality  which  retains 
the  natural  days,  as  after  the  type  of  the  natural  epochs,  and  keeps  the 
seventh  day  as  a  true  day,  and  yet  a  prefiguration  of  the  Sabbath  of 
rest  which  remaineth  for  the  people  of  God.  This  view  will  thoroughly 
fall  in  with  the  account  given  of  the  garden  of  Eden,  which  we  may 
regard  as  a  reality  on  the  earth,  yet  a  prefiguration  of  the  inheritance 
of  the  saints  in  heaven. 


AND  SUPERNATURAL  SYSTEMS. 


345 


rising  to  a  higher,  and  a  typical  system  consum- 
mated in  Christ  the  Great  Archetype. 

III.  Both  have  a  very  special  relation  to  man. 
They  have  also,  hoth  the  one  and  other,  farther 
relations  towards  other  worlds  and  towards  God 
himself,  some  of  which  we  may  discover,  but  all 
of  which  can  never  be  known  to  us.  But  both 
have  a  regard  to  man  which  we  can  discern, 
and  which  we  are  expected  to  observe.  The 
natural  system  has  a  manifest  relation  to  man ; 
it  provides  a  supply  for  his  animal  wants ;  it  fur- 
nishes enjoyments  to  his  emotional  nature ;  it  is 
admirably  suited  to  his  searching  and  contem- 
plative intellect.  We  are  told  here  and  there  in 
the  Scriptures,  that  the  grand  supernatural  event, 
the  Incarnation  of  the  Son  of  God,  has  a  respect 
to  other  worlds ;  but  it  has  a  special  reference  to 
man,  to  his  restoration  and  regeneration ;  being 
addressed  to  his  higher  and  deeper,  as  the  other 
is  to  his  superficial  and  material  wants ;  having 
in  view  to  elevate  his  moral  and  spiritual  charac- 
ter, as  the  other  has  to  improve  his  intellectual 
and  emotional  constitution. 

IV.  Both  are  so  far  understood,  but  neither  is 
fully  understood.  Wo  do  understand  so  much 
of  nature,  and  we  are  ever  understanding  more, 
and  are  encouraged  to  seek  after  higher  and  ever 
higher  knowledge.  Still  we  can  never  compre- 
hend the  whole.     Placed  as  we  are  in  the  centre 


346  ANALOGY  BETWEEN  THE  NATURAI^ 

of  boundless  space,  and  in  the  middle  of  eternal 
ages,  we  can  discern  only  a  few  objects  imme- 
diately around  us,  and  the  others  fade  in  outline, 
as  they  are  removed  from  us  by  distance,  till  at 
length  they  lie  altogether  beyond  our  vision. 
Nay,  it  would  seem  as  if  the  wider  the  bounda- 
ries of  knowledge  are  pushed,  and  the  greater 
the  space  illuminated  by  the  torch  of  science, 
the  greater  in  proportion  the  bounding  sphere 
into  which  no  rays  will  penetrate, — -just  as  when 
(to  use  an  old  comparison)  we  strike  up  a  light 
in  the  midst  of  darkness,  in  very  proportion  as 
the  light  becomes  stronger  so  does  also  that  sur- 
face, black  and  dark,  which  is  rendered  visible. 
It  is  the  same  with  the  supernatural  light  vouch- 
safed. All  who  are  blessed  with  the  light  of 
revelation  can  know  something  of  the  action, 
something  even  of  the  laws  and  of  the  theory  of 
the  mediatorial  work  of  Christ.  Every  one  can 
see  what  God  intends  by  it;  every  one  may 
know  what  he  ought  to  do  to  secure  the  bless- 
ings. We  all  see  enough  of  the  Gospel  to  dis- 
cover it  to  be  the  Power  of  God,  and  the  Wisdom 
of  God,  and  the  Goodness  of  God.  By  a  closer 
study  of  the  Word,  and  by  an  experimental 
acquaintance  with  its  truths,  many  obtain  a 
deeper  view  of  its  mysteries — that  is,  of  truths 
once  hid,  but  now  revealed.  But,  after  all,  there 
is  much  which  remains,  and  must  ever  remain 


AND  SUPERNATURAL  SYSTEMS. 


347 


uncomprehended  and  incomprehensible.  In  re- 
gard both  to  natural  and  spiritual  things,  we  live 
in  a  world  "  where  day  and  night  alternate," — in 
the  light,  we  go  everywhere  accompanied  by  our 
own  shadow. 

V.  In  both  we  can  accommodate  ourselves  to 
modes  of  procedures  on  the  part  of  God  which 
we  do  not  fully  comprehend.  Thus,  in  God's 
natural  economy  we  all  act  upon  laws,  the 
precise  nature  of  which  is  very  much  unknown 
to  us.  Mankind  conformed  to  and  profited  by 
tlie  regularity  of  the  seasons,  long  before  they 
knew  any  thing  of  those  cosmical  arrangements 
which  give  us  the  return  of  seedtime  and  harvest, 
of  summer  and  winter.  We  act  upon  empirical 
knowledge  as  to  the  springing  and  growth  of  the 
plant,  while  we  are  entirely  ignorant  of  the 
chemical  and  vital  agencies  by  which  the  regular 
result  is  effected.  We  guide  and  control  magne- 
tism and  electricity,  and  turn  them  to  most 
important  practical  uses,  and  all  the  while  the 
most  advanced  science  cannot  tell  us  what  is  the 
nature  of  these  agents.  It  is  much  the  same  in 
the  supernatural  economies  of  God.  As  much  is 
always  revealed  as  enables  us  to  exercise  faith,  and 
to  conduct  courses  of  practical  action,  but  seldom 
enough  to  make  us  understand  all  the  bearings 
and  relations  of  the  doctrine.  It  is  thus  that 
we  must  believe  in  much  which  we  cannot  fully 


348 


ANALOGY  BETWEEN  THE  NATURAL 


comprehend ;  believe  in  the  eternity  of  God, 
while  we  cannot  grasp  it  as  a  positive  concep- 
tion ;  believe  in  the  triune  nature  of  God,  while 
we  cannot  explain  the  mysteries  of  the  relation 
of  the  one  to  the  other,  and  of  the  three  to  the 
one.  It  is  thus,  too,  that  we  use  the  appointed 
means  for  securing  the  spiritual  blessings,  and 
pray  for  the  Spirit  of  God  to  give  efficacy  to 
them,  while  we  are  entirely  ignorant  of  the  way 
in  which  the  Spirit  works,  and  of  the  relation 
between  his  operations  and  the  instrumentality 
which  we  have  employed. 

VI.  In  both  we  use  means,  and  yet  know  that 
the  end  may  depend  on  arrangements  which  are 
made  by  a  Higher  Power.  It  is  thus  that,  in  the 
affairs  of  this  world,  all  prudent  men  are  active 
and  industrious  in  the  hope  of  reaching,  if  not 
wealth,  at  least  a  competence  of  earthly  neces- 
saries and  blessings ;  and  it  is  usual  that  these 
means  are  made  to  secure  the  desired  result; 
yet  it  will  happen  not  unfrequently  that  these 
virtues  may  be  sedulously  practised — and  the  en- 
pected  consequences  fail,  because  of  some  cross 
incident  occurring  in  the  providence  of  God, 
because  of  the  folly  or  treachery  of  some  one 
who  had  been  trusted  apparently  on  good  grounds, 
or  by  a  calamity  which  the  person  had  no  reason 
to  fear,  produced  by  agencies  over  which  he  had 
no  control.     By  this  double  provision  of  God  s 


AND  SVPEHNATURAL  SYSTEMS.  349 

natural  providence,  mankind  are  at  one  and  the 
same  time  allured  to  activity  and  made  to  see 
that  their  exertions  may  after  all  be  unsuccessful; 
encouraged  to  persevere,  and  yet  taught  impres- 
sively that  they  are  dependent  on  the  plans  of  a 
Higher  Wisdom.    In  hke  manner,  the  believer  is 
commanded  to  labour  and  pray,  to  work  out  his 
salvation   with   fear  and  trembling;   and  he  is 
encouraged  to  do  so  by  a  reasonable  prospect  of 
success ;  but  he  is  taught  at  the  same  time  that 
eveiy  spiritual  grace  is  wrought  in  him  by  the 
power  of  God,  and  that  it  is  God  that  worketh  in 
us  both  to  will  and  to  do  of  his  good  pleasure.    No 
doubt  there  is  this  difference  between  the  two  king- 
doms— the  kingdom  of  nature  and  the  kingdom  of 
grace — that  in  the  former  the  means  themselves 
tend  to  produce  their  ends,  and  do  produce  them 
except  vvdien  they  are  thwarted  by  natural  agen- 
cies ;  v>^hereas  in  the  latter  the  means  secure  the 
end  only  so  far  as  there  is  a  Divine  Power  work- 
ing in  them.     But  this  dijBference  of  the  mode 
only  evinces  the  need  of  supernatural  power  to 
accomplish  high  spiritual  ends,  and  impresses  us 
the  more  with  the  correspondence  of  the  two 
economies,  wdiich  thus  secure  similar  ends  by 
a  difference  of  means. 

VII.  In  both,  the  moral  is  higher  than  the 
spiritual.  Bishop  Butler  has  shewn,  that  when 
we  properly  interpret   our   moral   nature,  it  is 


350  ANALOGY  BETWEEN  THE  NATURAL 

found  to  declare  not  only  that  moral  good  is  to 
be  commended,  but  that  it  is  higher  than  any 
other  good,  higher  than  the  merely  pleasurable, 
hioiier  than  the  simply  beautiful ;  and  other 
moralists  have  shewn,  from  the  intimations  of 
our  moral  reason,  that  the  law  of  God  is  eternal 
and  immutable.  But  every  one  who  has  taken 
a  profound  view  of  the  Gospel  provision  knows 
that  all  this  is  presupposed  in  it,  and  that  it  was 
because  of  the  everlasting  and  essential  holiness 
of  God  and  of  the  unbending  character  of  his 
law,  that  the  Son  of  God  behoved  to  suffer  and 
to  die,  in  order  that  God's  everlasting  purposes 
of  grace  might  be  carried  out. 

VIII.  The  one  system  fits  into  the  other. 
This  is  the  most  characteristic  and  wonderful 
point  of  correspondence.  The  tw^o  have  not 
only  a  likeness  in  mode  and  manner,  in  style 
and  means,  but  the  one  is  adapted  to  the 
other, — as  in  the  natural  kingdom  the  mineral 
is  adapted  to  the  plant  and  the  plant  to  the 
mineral,  and  the  sky  above  to  the  earth  beneath. 
Where  the  one  ends  the  other  begins,  where  the 
lower  fails  the  higher  comes  in  and  succeeds. 
The  natural  cries  out  for  something  which  it 
feels  that  it  w^ants,  the  supernatural  answers  the 
cry,  and  supplies  what  is  needed.  And  yet  the 
supernatural  does  not  destroy  the  natural,  but 
uses  it,  elevates  it,  and  sanctifies  it.     The  super- 


AND  STTFERNATURAL  SYSTEMS.  351 

natural,  though  far  ahove  the  natural,  joins  on 
to  it,  and  embraces  and  canopies  it,  as  the 
heavens  do  the  earth. 

Some  may  he  inclined  to  look  on  the  analogies 
we  have  traced  merely  as  furnishing  profitable 
matter  for  meditation,  fitted  to  excite  admiration 
and  kindle  adoration  on  the  part  of  those  already 
believers  in  revelation.     Even  so,  they  will  have 
served  a  good  end.     But  I  am  inclined  to  think 
that  they  have  also  considerable  force  as  evi- 
dences of  the  truth  of  Christianity.     The  two 
do  look  as  if  they  had  the  same  all  wise  and  good 
God  for  their  author.     We  discover  everywhere 
a  certain  style,  and  method,  and  end  in   God's 
operations,  which  enable  us  easily  to  recognize 
them  as  His  works.     The  plant  is  not  the  same 
as  the  animal,  the  crystal  on  the  earth  is  not  the 
same  as  the  star  in  heaven,  but  we  see  at  once 
that  he  who  made  the  one  also  made  the  other. 
It  should  be  acknowledged  by  all  that  the  natu- 
ral structure  is  not  the  same  as  the  spiritual ; 
but  there  is  a  sameness  in  the  style  and  plan 
which  suffice  to  shew  that  they  are  both  designs 
of  the  same  Great  Architect. 

It  should  be  observed  that  the  argument  is 
not  drawn  simply  from  a  vague  general  resem- 
blance. It  is  derived  from  the  relation  of  each 
to  God  and  to  man,  from  the  fitting  of  the  one 
into  the  other,  and  from  the  common  ends  of 


352  TEE  NATURAL  AND  SUFHENATVUAL. 

beneficence  and  of  righteousness  served  by  them. 
We  have  a  right  to  demand  of  the  opponents  of 
Christianity  that  they  shew  how  this  correspon- 
dence could  have  arisen.  The  supposition  that 
it  has  been  produced  by  studious  design,  on  the 
part  of  the  human  framers  of  the  supposed 
supernatural  system,  needs  no  confutation.  But 
it  is  scarcely  less  preposterous  to  suppose,  that  it 
can  have  proceeded  from  the  unconscious  opera- 
tion of  human  nature  through  long  ages.  The 
correspondence  is  far  too  free  in  its  manner  to 
allow  of  the  former  supposition ;  it  is  far  too 
congruous  and  consistent  in  its  method  to  allow 
of  the  latter ;  it  is  far  too  moral  and  spiritual  to 
admit  of  either.  The  most  reasonable  conclu- 
sion is,  that  the  two  are  compartments  of  one 
great  building;  not  antagonistic,  but  adaptive; 
not  conflicting,  but  corresponding ;  not  contra- 
dictory, but  complementary. 

'      "  Truth,  so  far,  in  my  took ;— the  truth  which  draws 
Through  all  things  upwards;   that  a  twofold  world 
IMust  go  to  a  perfect  cosmos ;  Natural  things 
And  Spiritual." 


APPENDIX. 


Art.  1.— oxford  PHILOSOPHY. 

Within  the  last  eventful  age  we  have  had  two  impor- 
tant religious  movements  originating  in  Oxford — the 
one  coming  to  a  head  ahout  thirty  years  ago,  and  the 
other  making  its  appearance  within  the  last  few  years. 
It  has  been  shewn  again  and  again  that  these  two  have 
a  closer  connexion  than  the  superficial  thinker  might 
imagine.  There  is  the  old  maxim  of  extremes  meeting, 
of  extremes  producing  each  other;  there  is  the  more 
modern  law  of  action  being  followed  by  an  equal  re- 
action. Plutarch  shewed  liow  it  is  that  superstition 
produces  atheism  :  thinking  men,  put  into  a  state  of 
merriment  or  of  pain  by  the  absurdities  of  an  abject  su- 
perstition, are  tempted  to  cast  away  all  faith.  But,  in 
addition  to  the  action  of  these  more  general  laws,  the 
leaders  of  the  medieval  school  had  exposed  those  who 
looked  up  to  them  to  more  particular  and  fatal  in- 
fluences. They  took  special  pains  to  shew  that  not 
only  human  reason  and  natural  religion,  but  the  Word 
of  God  itself,  cannot  be  relied  on.  Their  sincere  aim 
was  to  induce  their  followers  to  hand  themselves  over 
unreservedly  to  the  teaching  of  the  Church.  The  dis- 
ciples went  so  far  with  them.  They  gave  up  the  ordi- 
nary arguments  for  the  existence  of  a  personal  God, 
and  faith  in  the  Bible  as  an  infallible  guide ;  but 
many  of  them  became  restive  when  they  were  taught 
to  fall  back  on  Church  principles,  and,  following  out 
the  premises  given  them.,  they  have  arrived  at  con- 
clusions very  different  from  those  which  their  precep- 
tors anticipated. 

z 


354  APPENDIX. 

But,  instead  of  speculating  on  the  causes  which  have 
produced  what  has  ah-eady  taken  place,  it  is  of  more 
importance  to  inquire  what  is  likely  to  he  the  issue,  in 
the  next  few  years,  of  the  causes  operating  at  this  pre- 
sent moment. 

So  for  as  I  have  means  of  judging,  it  appears  to  me 
that  the  two  philosophic  lights  in  Oxford  at  the  present 
time  are  Kant,  as  modified  hy  Sir  W.  Hamilton  and 
Dr.  Mansel,  and  Mr.  John  S.  Mill  in  his  integrity.  Let 
us  inquire  how  the  youth  is  equipped  who  has  to  form  an 
independent  opinion,  on  the  great  religious  questions 
started,  after  having  heen  disciplined  in  the  forms  of 
Kant,  and  having  drunk  into  the  spirit  of  Mill. 

Kant  has  taught  him  that  there  are  deep  speculative 
principles  in  the  mind,  but  that  these  have  no  objective 
value  whatever,  and  guarantee  nothing  as  to  the  real 
world,  nay,  land  us  in  contradictions  when  we  suppose 
them  to  have  an  application  to  things.  He  is  told  that 
cause  and  effect  have  links  given  them  by  the  mind^  but 
may  have  no  connexion  in  the  actual  world  or  beyond 
it.  He  is  instructed  that  we  caniQOt  prove  the  existence 
of  God  from  his  works,  and  is  referred  to  some  other 
way  of  reaching  the  Divine  Being  which  the  student 
does  not  very  well  understand ;  but  so  for  as  he  com- 
prehends it,  he  does  not  deem  it  very  satisfactory,  for  if 
the  speculative  reason  be  delusive,  why  may  not  the 
moral  reason  also  be  deceptive  ? 

I  have  frequently  taken  occasion  to  express  my  high 
opinion  of  the  philosophy  of  the  late  Sir  W.  Hamilton. 
I  believe  that  he  has  added  immensely  to  our  know- 
ledge of  every  department  of  the  human  mind,  and 
that  his  criticism  of  the  philosophy  of  the  Absolute 
has  not  been  answered,  and  never  will  be  answered. 
But  I  have  always  regretted  that  he  adopted  so  many 
of  the  principles  of  Kant.  He  allows  that  the  mind 
starts  with  phenomena  in  the  sense  of  appearances,  and 
not  with  thu)gs,  and  that  the  mind,  in  its  knowledge 
of  objects,  adds  elements  of  its  own.  "  Suppose  that 
the  total  object  of  consciousness  in  perception=  12 ; 


AITEXBIX. 


355 


and  suppose  that  the  external  reality  contributes  6,  the 
material  sense  3,  and  the  mind  3 ;  this  may  enable  you 
to  form  some  rude  conjecture  of  the  nature  of  the  object 
of  perception  "  {Mctajjh.  vol.  ii.  p.  129).  His  philo- 
sophy, beginning  in  nescience,  must  end  in  nescience. 
He  thus  sums  up  the  results  reached  by  him  in  com- 
paring his  philosophy  of  the  Conditioned  with  that  of 
the  Absolute :  "In  one  respect  both  coincide,  for  both 
agree  that  the  knowledge  of  nothing  is  the  principle 
or  result  of  all  true  philosophy ;  '  Scire  Nihil — studium 
quo  nos  laetamur  utrique.'  But  the  one  doctrine  main- 
taining that  the  Nothing  must  yield  everything  is  a 
philosophic  omniscience  ;  whereas,  the  other  holding 
that  Nothing  can  ^deld  nothing,  is  a  philosophic 
nescience.  In  other  words,  the  doctrine  of  the  un- 
conditioned is  a  philosophy  confessing  relative  igno- 
rance, but  professing  absolute  knowledge ;  while  the 
doctrine  of  the  conditioned  is  a  philosophy  professing 
relative  knowledge,  but  confessing  absolute  ignorance  " 
{Discuss,  p.  609).  Following  out  these  principles,  he 
declares  that  the  argument  for  the  Divine  existence, 
got  by  human  intelligence,  is  inconclusive  ;  and,  though 
he  stands  up  for  it,  I  cannot  see  how  even  the  moral 
argument  remains,  if  "  good  and  bad  "  (Discuss,  p.  604) 
are  subject  to  the  same  all-sweeping  system  of  relativity 
and  nescience.  Time  and  space  are  forms  of  the 
mind  ;  our  conviction  as  to  cause  and  effect  is  a  mere 
impotency,  implying  no  objective  existence  ;  and  the 
highest  effort  of  philosophy  is  to  shew  us  that  God  is 
unknowable  in  his  real  nature.  Nor  is  his  position  much 
amended  by  his  handing  us  over,  after  he  has  landed 
us  in  nescience,  to  a  faith  of  which  he  gives  no  account, 
and  which  is  well  described  by  Dr.  Dorner  as  the 
despair  of  knowledge  rather  than  anything  else.* 

*  For  years  past,  T  have  been  callino:  on  the  school  of  Hamilton  to  give 
us  some  account  of  the  nature  and  claims  of  that  unexplained  faith,  oa 
which  they  ever  fall  back,  when  their  nescience  leads  thtm  to  conclusions 
which  alarm  them.  An  able  and  faithful  disciple  admits,  "  Tiie  absolute 
or  infinite  is  cast  beyoud  the  sphere  of  thought  and  science;  it  is  still, 
however,  allowed  by  Hamilton  to  remain  in  some  sense  in  consciousness, 


356  APFENJDIX. 

I  have  ever  felt  great  pleasure  in  giving  my  feeble 
testimony  to  the  pre-eminent  merits  of  Dr.  Mansel,  as 
a  scholar  and  a  philosopher.  I  am  prepared  to  main- 
tain, that  his  objections  to  the  a  priori  theologies  of 
the  absolute  have  not  been  answered,  and  that  his 
services,  in  so  thoroughly  undermining  the  ambitious 
speculations  which  were  coming  in  upon  us,  directly 
or  indirectly,  from  the  schools  of  Schleiermacher  and 
Hegel,  have  entitled  him  to  the  perpetual  gratitude 
of  all  sound  thinkers  and  friends  of  Christian  truth. 
But  I  have  ever  regretted  that  he  should  have  adopted 
so  many  of  the  principles  of  Kant,  and  that  he  should 
have  followed  so  implicitly  the  nescient  philosophy  of 
Sir  W.  Hamilton.  Eminently  successful  in  attack,  I 
cannot  see  that  he  has  any  body  of  fundamental  truths 
on  which  to  rear  a  sound  philosophy,  or  by  which  to 
lend  positive  aid  to  Christian  theology.  The  works 
which  have  been  called  forth  by  these  discussions,  such 
as  those  of  Chretien  {Letter  to  Mr.  Maurice^ ;  of 
Young  (Reason  and  FaitJi)  ;  of  Calderwood  {Philo- 
sophy  of  the  Infinite^  Second  Edition)  ;  of  Robins  {A 
Defence  of  the  FaitJi)  ;  of  Professor  Goldwin  Smith 
{Rational  Religion,  &c.)  of  Timologus  {Seoto- Oxonian 
Philosojjhy) — shew  that  there  are  minds  of  a  high 
order  which  cannot  be  made  to  submit  to  the  philoso- 
phic and  religious  nescience  w^hich  it  is  attempted  to 
impose  on  them.  In  particular,  there  has  been  a 
general  disposition  to  take  exceptions  to  the  view 
wdiich  is  given  of  the  conceptions  of  morality  furnished 
by  the  moral  reason  ;  these.  Dr.  Mansel  thinks,  are 
and  must  be  relative  to  the  structure  of  our  minds, 
and  may  not  at  all  represent  the  absolute  or  divine 
morality.     But,  in  fact,  these  defective  views  of  our 

for  it  is  grasped  by  faith,  and  faith  is  a  conscious  act.  The  question, 
accordinsily,  at  once  meets  us — In  what  sense,  and  how  far,  can  there  bo 
an  object  within  consciousness,  which  is  not  properly  within  thouifht  or 
knowledge  ?  In  other  words,  how  far  is  our  faith  in  the  infinite  intelli- 
gent and  iutcllijiible  ?  This  point  demands  fartlier  and  more  detailed 
treatment  than  it  has  met  with  either  at  the  hands  of  Sir  AV.  Hamilton 
himself,  or  any  one  who  has  sought  to  carry  out  his  principles." — Imp. 
Diet.  Univ.  Biog.  Art.,  Hamilton,  Sir  W.,  by  J.  V.  (Professor  Veitch.; 


APPENDIX.  357 

moral  cognitions  originate  in  a  defective  philosophy, 
which  sets  out  with  the  dogma  that  we  cannot  know 
anything  as  it  is. 

I  ventured,  at  a  very  early  date,  to  intimate  my  ap- 
prehensions that  the  principles  which  lie  at  the  foun- 
dation of  the  philosophy  of  Sir  W.  Hamilton  might  be 
turned  to  sceptical  purposes  {MetJiod  of  Dlcine  Govern- 
ment, Appendix  to  Fourth  Edition,  185-i,  and  subse- 
quent Editions).  Very  soon  after  the  publication  of 
Mansel's  Limits  of  Religious  Thought^  and  when  the 
religious  press  was  unanimous  in  approving  of  it,  I 
pointed  out  fundamental  defects  in  the  principles  pro- 
ceeded on,  which  I  feared  that  those  opposed  to  reli- 
gion might  not  be  slow  to  turn  to  purposes  of  their  own 
(Article  in  North  British  Review,  February,  1859,  on 
Intuitional  Theology  and  Limits  of  Religious  Thought, 
and  Intuitions  of  the  Mind,  1860),  I  am  sorry  to  say 
that  these  fears  have  been  too  speedily  realised.  Mr. 
Mill  {Logic^  I.  iii.  5),  for  his  own  purposes,  quotes  with 
approbation  the  language  of  Hamilton — "  All  that  we 
know  is,  therefore,  phenomenal, — phenomenal  of  the 
unknown."  Professor  Alexander  Bain,  of  the  same 
school,  seizes  on  the  doctrine  of  relativity,  and  vshows 
that  we  are  not  entitled  to  look  on  mind  or  matter  as 
independent  existences  {The  Emotions  and  the  Will 
641 — 646).  Mr.  Powell  has  called  in  the  same  philo- 
sophy to  his  aid,  and  quotes  with  approbation  the  state- 
ment of  Dr.  Mansel,  that  "  creation  is  to  human 
thought  inconceivable"  {The  Order  of  Nature,  p.  256). 
Dr.  Duncanson,  of  the  Westminster  Review  School,  has 
drawn  the  religious  conclusion,  which  I  fear  many 
others  will  draw — "  There  is  a  still  more  advanced 
stage  of  opinion,  but  as  it  has  as  yet  been  entered  by 
a  very  few,  it  is  unnecessary  to  do  more  than  notice  it 
here.  All  knowledge  is  of  phenomena ;  things  by 
themselves  cannot  be  known  from  the  very  nature  of 
knowledge."  "  To  represent  the  supernatural  as  spiri- 
tual, is  to  assume  that  it  may  be  known.  When  we 
say  that  the  supernatural  is  the  spiritual,  we  offer  an 


358 


AFJPENDIX. 


explanation  of  it,  for  we  class  it  with  personal  agenc5^ 
The  supernatural  agent  may  he  represented  as  more 
mysterious  than  a  human  heing,  hut  he  is  conceivahle 
only  to  the  extent  he  is  assimilated  to  humanity.  But 
a  thing  that  is  explained  must  be  part  of  the  system 
which  supplies  the  explanation ;  so  that  the  super- 
natural, when  explained,  ceases  to  he  supernatural. 
The  spiritual  may  be  the  highest  form  by  which  we 
can  symbolize  the  supernatural,  but  it  is  far  from 
representing  the  unknowable,  as  the  most  concrete  and 
sensible  form.  The  supernatural,  then,  is  not  the 
spiritual,  but  simply  the  unthinkable,  the  uncondi- 
tioned, or  infinite"  (The  Providence  of  God,  87,  88.)* 
To  complete  the  succession,  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer 
avows  that  he  is  to  rear  his  huge  system  of  what 
most  men  w^ould  call  atheism,  on  the  principles  given 
him  by  Hamilton  and  Mansel,  and  has  actually  begun 
to  raise  his  structure  with  great  intellectual  vigor,  but 
with  sad  defects  in  his  original  principles,  and  mighty 
gaps  in  his  deductions.  (See  Circular  announcing  his 
Works,  and  FiJ^st  Principles^ 

Turning  to  Mr.  Mill,  we  find  him  represented  by 
competent  witnesses  as  the  person  who,  at  this  pre- 
sent time,  exercises  the  greatest  influence  over  the 
young  thought    of  Oxford.      M.   Taine    opens  an  ar- 

*  It  is  curious  to  observe  how  nearly  a  writer  in  the  North  British 
Review  comes  to  this  nescience.  An  able  and  elaborate  article  in  the 
number  for  May,  1861,  thus  closes: — "  Truth,  like  the  Deity,  is  bid  in 
darkness.  It  is  not  that  we  are  xmable  to  divine  the  mysteries  of  the  soul 
and  God  ;  the  simplest  plienomenon  of  sense  defies  our  wit.  Of  the  future 
destinies  of  philosophy  it  is  in  vain  to  speak.  Phenomena  we  can  observe — 
their  laws  we  are  able  to  ascertain — existence  is  beyond  our  ken.  The 
riddle  of  the  sphynx  has  never  yet  been  read.  The  veil  of  Isis  has  never 
yet  been  drawn.  The  hieroglyphics  of  the  universe  are  yet  undeciphered/' 
If  it  is  meant  that  wo  do  not  know  existence  apart  from  things  existinfj, 
I  admit  the  statement,  which  is  worth  nothing,  for  there  can  be  no  such 
thing  as  existence  apart  from  things  existing.  But  if  it  is  meant  that  we 
do  not  know  things,  say  ourselves  or  God,  as  existing,  the  statement  may 
form  the  first  stone  in  a  system  of  universal  scepticism.  I  liave  evidence 
that  in  Scotland  the  younger  metaphysical  talent  at  present  runs  along  the 
"  conditions"  and  "  relations"  of  Hamilton— as  along  rails  set  for  it ;  just 
as,  thirty  years  ago,  it  flev/  off  with  the  "  feelings"  and  "suggestions"  of 
Brown.  It  remains  to  be  seen  what  influence  this  "  Know-Nothing"  phiVa- 
sophy  is  to  exercise  on  the  religious  thought  of  Scotland. 


APrENDIX. 


359 


tide  on  "  Contemporary  English  Philosophy"  in  the 
Revue  des  Deux  Monties  for  March,  1861,  by  telling 
us  that  when  he  was  at  the  meeting  of  the  British 
Association  for  the  Promotion  of  Science,  at  Oxford, 
in  1860,  he  met  a  young  Englishman  of  genius  whom 
he  catechised  as  to  the  philosophy  of  his  country. 
After  listening  to  the  scientiiic  papers,  and  going 
through  the  museums,  the  Frenchman  says  to  the 
Englishman,  ^*  You  have  no  philosophers.  You  have 
savans,  but  not  thinkers."  The  young  English- 
man, thrown  upon  his  defence,  names,  as  the  ori- 
ginal thinkers  of  England,  Mr.  Jowett,  of  the 
"  Essays  and  Reviews,"  and  Mr.  Mill !  The  answer 
is  quite  characteristic  of  a  young  Oxonian  who 
has  caught  the  present  spirit  of  his  university. 
Testimonies  to  the  same  effect  might  be  quoted  from 
late  Numbers  of  Macmillan^s  Magazine,  and  the 
Literary  Gazette,  as  to  the  sway  which  Mr.  IMill  has 
over  thought  at  Oxford.  I  suppose  we  may  reckon 
the  Saturday  Review  as  a  fair  sample  of  Young 
Oxford  (quite  as  much  so  as  the  equally  clever  and 
equally  flippant  and  arrogant  Edinlurgh  Revieic,  at 
the  beginning  of  the  century,  was  of  the  then  Young 
Edinburgh)  ;  and  any  one  may  see  that  certain  writers 
in  that  Review  are  erudite  in  Mr.  Mill,  and  erudite 
in  no  other  philosophy. 

Every  one  who  has  himself  learned  to  think  must 
speak  with  profound  respect  of  Mr.  Mill.  His  opi- 
nions on  all  questions  of  social  science  are  always 
worthy  of  being  carefully  weighed.  Many  of  the 
principles  of  his  inductive  logic  are  well  founded. 
But  underneath  all  his  opinions  on  more  practical 
matters  there  is  a  fundamentally  defective  philosophy, 
which  is  ever  cropping  out.  As  I  have  said  elsewhere : — ■ 
"The  only  satisfactory  admission  of  Mr.  Mill  is, 
'  whatever  is  known  to  us  by  consciousness  is  known 
beyond  the  possibility,  of  question.'  {Logic,  Introd. 
p.  6.)  What  does  this  admission  amount  to  ?  First, 
as    to   self,  or   mind,  he  says^    ^  But  wdiat  this  being 


ODU  APPENDIX. 

is,  al though  it  is  myself,  I  have  no  knowledge,  other 
than  the  series  of  its  states  of  consciousness.'  As  to 
body,  he  says  the  reasonable  opinion  is,  that  it  is  the 
*  hidden  external  cause  to  "vvhich  we  refer  our  sen- 
sations.' (I.  iii.  8.)  Sensation  is  our  only  primary 
mental  operation  in  regard  to  an  external  world, 
and  perception  is  discarded  '  as  an  obscure  Avord.' 
(Compare  Dissertations,  vol.  i.,  p.  94.)  '  There 
is  not  the  slightest  reason  for  believing  that  what 
we  call  the  sensible  qualities  of  the  object  are  a  type 
of  anything  inherent  in  itself,  or  bear  any  affinity 
to  its  own  nature.'  ^Why  should  matter  resemble 
our  sensations  V  {Logic,  I.,  iii.  7.)  Speaking  of  the 
feelings  which  are  excited  by  bodies,  and  the  powers 
or  properties  whereby  they  are  excited,  he  says  that 
he  includes  these  '  rather  in  compliance  with  com- 
mon opinion,  and  because  their  existence  is  taken 
for  granted  in  the  common  language,  from  which  I 
cannot  deviate,  than  because  the  recognition  of  such 
powers  or  properties  appears  to  be  warranted  by  a 
sound  philosophy.'"  Mr.  Mill  labours  to  shew  that 
there  is  no  necessary  truth,  and  that  it  is  quite  con- 
ceivable that,  at  a  reasonable  distance  beyond  our 
world,  the  principle  of  cause  and  effect  may  not 
operate.  It  is  also  well  known  that  he  is  by  far  the 
ablest  and  most  plausible  defender  of  utilitarianism 
in  our  day. 

Now  the  question  arises,  What  sort  of  new  school 
is  likely  to  rise  out  of  Oxford  under  these  influences  ? 
I  put  the  question,  and  it  is  for  those  who  watch 
over  the  principles  of  the  rising  generation  in  that 
university  to  answer  it.  What  I  fear  is  a  combina- 
tion of  the  empty  forms  of  Kant,  with  the  phenomenal 
philosophy  of  Comte  and  Mill;  and  the  impression 
left  will  be,  that  it  is  useless  to  inquire  into  religion, 
since  no  certainty  can  be  attained  on  such  a  subject. 
To  all  this  I  have  no  doubt  a  vigorous  opposition  will 
be  offered,  but  I  anticipate  it  will  be  on  extreme 
grounds^  Avhich    can  issue  only   in  a  rationalism    or 


ATJPEXBIX. 


361 


intuitionalism  which  overridos  the  Word  of  Clod ; 
and  religious  thought  "will  go,  as  it  has  done  for  the 
last  agOj  hy  oscillations — ever  swinging  past  the 
point  of  rest. 

Bacon  says,  "  As  concerning  Divine  Philosophy,  or 
Natural  Theology,  it  is  that  knowledge  or  rndiment  of 
knowledge  concerning  God,  which  may  he  obtained  by 
the  contemplation  of  his  creatures  ;  which  knowledge 
may  be  truly  termed  divine  in  respect  of  the  object,  and 
natural  in  respect  of  the  light.  The  bounds  of  this 
knowledge  are,  that  it  sufficeth  to  convince  atheism, 
but  not  to  inform  religion"  {Advcmc.  of  Learning, 
Bk.  II).  It  can  easily  be  shewn  that  this  is  the  posi- 
tion which  has  been  taken  by  the  great  divines  of  the 
Anglican  Church,  and  by  British  theologians  generally.* 
They  have  maintained  with  wonderful  unanimity  that 
man's  reason,  intellectual  and  moral,  can  do  something 
in  religion,  but  that  it  cannot  do  everything ;  that  it 
can  conduct  us  to  thoroughly  ascertained  and  positive 
truth  concerning  God,  though  it  cannot  announce  how 
we,  as  sinners,  may  approach  him  with  acceptance. 
The  few  divines  in  our  country,  such  as  Bishop  Peter 
Browne  of  Cork,  who  held  that  man  cannot  rise  to  any 
proper  knowledge  of  God  by  the  light  of  nature,  have 
never  had  much  influence  over  thought,  or  been  sup- 
posed to  speak  the  general  mind  of  the  Churches  of 
these  lands.  On  the  other  hand,  those  who  have  given 
to  natural  reason  a  sufficiency  in  itself,  or  have  consti- 
tuted it  into  a  "  verifying"  faculty  to  determine  what 
we  should  take  and  what  we  should  reject  in  Scripture, 
have  been  characterized  as  rationalists,  and  have  never 
been  held  as  representing  the  Christian  Churches  in 
these  lands.  I  look  on  the  position  thus  taken  up  by 
the  great  body  of  British  theologians  as  the  right,  the 

*  This  is  scarcely  the  place  (another  opportunity  may  present  itself) 
for  offering  any  more  elaborate  defence  of  this  position  from  the  objections 
taken  against  it,  and  against  me  for  holding  it,  by  Dr.  Dorner,  of  Gottia- 
gen,  in  his  long,  and  able,  and  candid  review  of  Hamilton,  Mansol, 
Maurice,  Fitzgerald,  and  myself,  in  an  Article  (occasioned  by  my  "  Letter 
to  the  German  Churches")  in  the  *'  Jahrbiicher  fur  Deutsche  theoloqie'^ 
fur  1861. 


362 


AF  FEN  BIX. 


wise,  and  the   safe  one ;  and  we  peril  tlie  cause  of  re- 
ligion if  we  depart   from  it  to  one    side   or  other.     I 
believe  it  to  be  the  very  position  taken  by  the  Apostle 
Paul  in  the  opening  of  the  Epistle  to  the  ^Romans,  and 
indeed  by  the  inspired  writers  all  throug^hout  the  Scrip- 
tures.    The  Bible   comes  to  us  as  tlie  Word  of  God, — 
pre-supposing  that  we  believe  in  God,  on  the  natural 
evidence  supplied  by  h:s  works  without  and  convictions 
within.     Pre-supposirg  that  God  and  his  eternal  power 
and  godhead  may  be   thus  so  far  known — yes,  known 
(voohij^iva  za^puTai  is  the  language  used,  Rom.  i.  20)-^it 
comes  to  us  to  make  him  more  fully  known,  as  to  what 
he  is  in  himself,  and  as  to  what  he  has   done   for  man. 
The  great  philosophers  of  our  country  have  held,  with 
Bacon,  "  that  by  the  contemplation  of  nature,  to  induce 
and  enforce  the  acknowledgment  of  God,  and  to  demon- 
strate his  power,  providence,  and  goodness,  is  an  excel- 
lent argument"  {Adcanc.  of  Learning,  Bk.  II.) ;  and 
I  hope  they  will  continue  to  do  so  in  England  and  in 
Scotland,  despite  the  authority  of  Kant  and   Hamilton. 
The  great  theologians  of  our  country,  and  of  Germany 
too,  have    drawn    their   most   powerful   arguments  in 
behalf  of  the  Bible  as  the  Word  of  God  from  the  reve- 
lations given  to  man  by  the  "  law  of  conscience  which 
is  a  sparkle  of  his  first  estate,"  of  the  perfect  and  un- 
changeable   morality  of  God;    and  I   trust   they   will 
never  allow  themselves  to  be  drawn  from   this  by  the 
temptation  held  out  to  them,  of  lowering  the  pretensions 
of  rationalists  by  taking  lower  and  negative  grounds  on 
the  subject  of  man's  moral  reason.     On  the  other  hand, 
they  must  beware,  lest  the  extreme  position   taken  by 
the  nescient  school  should  allure   them  to   go  to   the 
opposiiL'   extr 'me,  and    to    ascribe   to    unaided  human 
reason  a  suffii-iency^  which  all  history  and  all  experience 
shew  that  it  has  never  realized.     The  constant  appeals 
which  are  being  made  in  our  day  to  the  idea  of  the  in- 
finite and  the  moral  reason,  should  induce  all  thinkers 
to  set  about  an  earnest  inquiry,  pursued  in   the  induc- 
tive manner,  as  to  the  precise  conceptions  and  beliefs 


AFPEXBIX, 


363 


Avliicli  the  liuman  mind  entertains  in  regard  to  infinity, 
and  as  to  the  intimations  actually  made  by  the  con- 
science. As  the  result  of  such  an  investigation,  it  will 
be  found  that  we  have  positive  and  very  profound  con- 
ceptions on  such  subjects,  but  that  they  are  utterly, 
and  obviously,  and  deplorably  insufficient  "  to  inform 
religion." 


AiiT.  ll.-BUNSEN  AND  GERMAN  THEOLOGY. 

As  the  name  of  Bunsen  has  been  employed  for  a 
purpose  in  one  of  the  "  Essays  and  Reviews,"  and  as 
I  have  had  occasion  more  than  once  to  refer  to  that 
distinguished  man,  I  feel  as  if  it  w-ere  due  to  his 
memory  to  give  some  particulars  of  the  delightful 
intercourse  which  I  had  with  him,  several  hours  every 
day  for  five  successive  days,  in  the  month  of  August, 
1858. 

It  was  on  the  afternoon  of  Tuesday,  August  4,  that 
I  waited  on  him  at  his  pleasant  villa,  at  Charlotten- 
burg,  near  Heidelberg,  with  a  letter  of  introduction, 
with  which  I  had  been  favoured,  from  a  distinguished 
British  nobleman^  a  special  friend  of  Bunsen's.  As  I 
went  up  to  his  residence,  a  carriage  passed  out  having 
in  it  a  gentleman  of  a  singularly  grave  and  noble 
countenance,  and  I  was  sure  this  must  be  Bunsen 
himself.  Not  finding  him  at  home,  I  left  my  card  and 
introductions,  and  the  same  evening  I  had  a  kind 
letter  from  him  inviting  me  to  visit  him  next  day,  and 
pressing  me  to  give  him  as  much  of  my  time  as  possible. 
Next  day  I  secured  my  first  interview  with  him^  and 
on  each  successive  day,  to  the  Sunday  following,  inclu- 
sive, I  waited  on  him  by  appointment,  at  dinner,  or  for 
cofiee,  or  for  tea,  and  on  each  occasion  had  lengthened 
conversations  with  him.  And  what  a  talker  !  Inte^ 
resting  as  many  of  his  writings  are,  they  are  not  nearly 
so  much  so  as  was  his  conversation.     The  man  himself 


^O-i  AFFEXBIX. 

was  an  object  of  the  highest  interest  to  all  who  could 
appreciate  him.  AVith  a  head  that  rose  like  a  dome, 
he  had  a  heart  from  which  there  f^lowed  a  genial  heat 
as  from  a  domestic  fire.  lie  talked  of  education  in 
Germany  and  in  England,  of  religion,  of  theology,  of 
philosophy,  of  the  state  of  the  Romish  and  Protestant 
Churches  on  the  Continent,  and  interspersed  the  grand 
theoretical  views  which  he  delighted  to  expound  with 
anecdotes  of  kings,  statesmen,  philosophers,  and  theo- 
logians of  the  highest  name,  with  whom  he  had  been 
intimate.  But  his  noble  enthusiasm  ever  kindled  into 
the  brightest  flame  when  he  spread  out  before  me  his 
own  intended  works,  as  illustrative  of  the  Bible,  of 
philosophy,  and  history,  and  fitted  to  help  on  the 
education  of  the  race.  I  have  met  with  many  talented 
men,  with  many  good  men,  with  not  a  few  men  of 
genius  ;  but  I  have  had  the  privilege  of  holding  con- 
fidential intercourse  with  only  three  whom  I  reckoned 
"  great  men."  One,  the  greatest,  I  think — Dr.  Chal- 
mers— ever  rises  up  before  my  memory  as  a  mountain, 
standing  fair,  and  clear,  and  large.  The  second, 
Hugh  Miller,  rises  as  a  bold  rocky  promontory,  covered 
all  over  with  numberless  plants  of  wild  exquisite 
beauty.  The  third,  Bunsen,  stretches  out  before  me 
wide,  and  lovely,  and  fertile — like  the  plains  of  Lom- 
bardy  which  I  had  just  passed  through  before  visiting 
him. 

I  have  referred  to  the  fondness  with  which  he  dwelt 
on  his  contemplated  publications.  He  was  now,  in 
his  retirement,  to  give  to  the  world  the  views  on  all 
subjects,  historical,  philosophical,  and  theological,  which 
had  burst  upon  him  in  their  freshness  when  he  spent 
so  many  of  his  youthful  years  in  Rome.  I  confess, 
however,  that,  deeply  interested  as  I  was  in  his  specu- 
lations— as  these  came  forth  with  such  a  warmth  and 
radiance  from  his  own  lips — I  had  all  the  while  an 
impression  that  he  would  require  to  live  to  an  ante- 
diluvian age  in  order  to  commit  all  his  theories  to 
writing, — and  also  a  very  strong  conviction  that  his 


APPENDIX.  365 

views  belonged  to  the  past  age  rather  than  the  present, 
and  that  some  of  them  would  not,  in  fact,  promote  the 
cause  of  religion  which  he  had  so  much  at  lieart.  It 
ever  came  out,  that  he  drew  no  distinction  between 
the  natural  and  preternatural.  He  was  a  firm  believer 
in  mesmerism  and  clairvoyance  (in  fiivour  of  them  he 
mentioned  some  circumstances  which  seemed  to  me  to 
have  no  evidential  value),  and  was  apt  to  connect  them 
with  the  inspiration  of  the  writers  of  the  Bible.* 

He  talked  in  terms  of  intense  affection  of  Alexander 
von  Humboldt,  with  whom  I  had  had  some  intercourse 
a  short  time  before.  My  interview  with  tliat  illustrious 
man  was  held  by  appointment  (through  Ilerr  Sydow 
w^ho  had  introduced  me  to  him),  in  his  own  house  in 
Berlin,  on  June  15th  of  the  same  year,  only  a  few 
months  before  his  decease.  The  conversation  began 
by  his  referring  to  my  published  views  as  to  the  corres- 
pondence between  the  ramification  of  the  plant  and 
the  venation  of  its  leaves,  as  shewing  that  there  is  a 
unity  of  plan  and  structure  throughout  the  plant, — to 
the  general  doctrine  he  gave  his  decided  adherence, 
and  said  that  he  had  himself  noticed  the  correspon- 
dence. He  passed  on  to  discourse  of  the  injurious 
imputations  which  had  been  cast  on  his  religious  prin- 
ciples by  certain  Jesuits,  and  in  doing  so,  spoke  in 
terms  of  strong  indignation  of  the  way  in  which  the 
great  German  Leibnitz,  had  sought  to  prejudice  the 
Electress  of  Brandenburg  against  the  English  Newton, 
because  of  the  supposed  irreligious  tendencies  of  his 
w^orks.  He  branched  off  into  the  latest  discoveries 
in  science ;  shewed  me  curious  natural  objects  which 
he  had  picked  up  in  various  parts  of  the  world  ;  he 
talked  of  the  plurality  of  worlds,  which  he  believed  in  as 

*  Siuce  writins?  the  above  my  eye  has  ali'sfhted  on  a  passacfe  in  one  of 
Schleierniachcr's  Letters,  written  in  1817  (Z-//^,  translated  b//  F.  Itoiran, 
p.  260),  in  which,  speaking  of  animal  magnetism,  he  says  :— ''  My  opinion, 
in  regard  to  the  nature  of  these  mental  phenomena  and  to  their  truth  is 
this:  any  distinction  between  tlie  natural  and  supernatural,  between  the 
comprehensible  and  the  incomprehensible,  I  do  not,  upon  the  wliole,  reco"-- 
uize.  " 


3G6  AFFEXDIX. 

being  most  consonant  witli  his  conception  of  God  ;  and 
he  encouraged  me  to  speak  of  religion  and  of  the  recon- 
ciling work  of  the  Saviour.  "  You  are  going  to  visit 
Bunsen,"  he  said ;  "  you  must  by  all  means  do  so ;" 
and  he  proceeded  to  speak  of  him  in  the  language  of 
the  greatest  admiration  and  affection,  adding,  "  I  do 
not  understand  some  of  his  writings,  hut  I  have  formed 
the  very  highest  opinion  of  his  Bibelwerk."  It  is  not 
for  one  who  had  so  imperfect  an  acquaintance  with 
Humboldt  as  1  had  to  attempt  to  reconcile  what  he 
said  to  me  with  harsh  expressions  about  Bunsen  scat- 
tered throughout  his  letters  to  Varnhagen.  Were  his 
feelings  towards  Bunsen  softened  in  his  later  days  ? 
Or  was  he  rejoicing  in  the  Bibelwerk  because  he  saw 
that  it  would  further  very  different  ends  from  those 
contemplated  by  Bunsen  ?  On  my  reporting  to  Bunsen 
how  kindly  Humboldt  had  spoken  of  him,  he  said,  "  I 
am  bringing  out  a  certain  portion  of  my  Bibelwerk 
before  other  parts  which  should  come  earlier^  in  order 
that  it  may  fall  under  the  eye  of  Humboldt  ere  he  is 
removed  from  us."  The  way  he  said  this  shewed  the 
great  love  he  had  for  Humboldt ;  and  he  intimated 
pretty  plainly  that  he  hoped  the  part  of  the  Bibelwerk 
to  Avhich  he  referred  might  help  to  draw  Humboldt 
towards  deeper  religious  convictions. 

Whether  any  such  end  was  accomplished,  I  have  no 
means  of  knowing.  I  have  doubts  as  to  whether  the 
means  were  fitted  to  attain  the  object  fondly  desired. 
For  Bunsen  was  already  in  a  very  ambiguous  position 
in  his  own  country.  Respected  and  beloved  by  all — 
except  the  enemies  of  civil  and  religious  liberty — his 
speculations^  philosophical  or  theological,  carried,  I 
found,  very  little  weight  in  Germany.  The  great 
divines  of  the  orthodox  school,  while  they  loved  him 
for  his  piety,  just  regretted  the  more  that  in  his  opinions 
as  to  the  authenticity  and  inspiration  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment he  was  adhering  to  views  which  had  been  very 
prevalent  in  the  earlier  part  of  the  century,  but  had 
been  for  years  abandoned  by  all  who  had  given  their 


yipp:EXDix.  3G7 

attention  to  the  subject.  The  rationalists,  who,  in  the 
days  of  their  strength,  had  hated  Bunsen  for  his  warm 
evangelical  piety,  were  rejoicing,  now  that  the  tide  was 
against  thcni,  that  they  had  in  him  an  unconscious 
auxiliary  in  their  work  of  undermining  the  inspiration 
of  the  Bible, — but  they  set  no  value  whatever  on  his 
own  speculations  and  opinions.  His  venerated  name 
is  being  extensively  used  by  the  rationalists  of  this 
country;  it  is  right  that  they  should  know  that  he  ever 
spoke  of  rationalism  in  terms  of  strongest  disapproba- 
tion and  aversion,  and  he  wished  it  to  be  known  every- 
where that  he  identified  himself  with  the  living 
evangelical  piety  of  Britain.  While  Bunsen  was  abfe 
to  retain  his  piety,  in  spite  of  the  vagueness  and  wan- 
derings of  his  speculative  opinions,  it  is  difficult  to  see 
how  any  young  man  trained  in  the  creed  left  to  Bunsen 
could  ever  rise  to  a  belief  in  the  Saviour. 

What  I  have  now  said  Indicates  pretty  clearly  the 
state  of  theological  belief  of  late  years  in  Germany. 
The  rationalists  of  the  two  last  ages,  though  their  im- 
mediate power  was  restricted  to  their  students  in  the 
universities,  had  yet,  through  them,  as  they  scattered 
through  the  country,  spread  a  most  baleful  influence, 
resulting  in  a  general  disregard  of  rehgion  among  all 
classes,  beginning  with  the  educated  and  going  down  to 
the  lowest.  But  since  1848 — when  the  country  became 
alarm.ed  at  the  extremes  to  which  infidelity  led — there 
has  been  a  reaction  in  favour  of  orthodox  doctrine  and 
evangelical  sentiments.  This  has  been  specially  felt  by 
students  intending  for  the  pastoral  office,  \\\\o  have 
very  much  abandoned  the  old  rationalistic  and  Hegelian 
professors,  and  are  crowding  the  class-rooms  of  those 
who  defend  the  inspiration  of  Scripture  and  the  old 
doctrines  of  salvation  by  the  cross  of  Christ.  The  great 
Germ.an  theologians  of  tlie  age  now  passing  away,  and  of 
the  present  age  have,  with  unmatched  erudition  and  pro- 
found speculative  ability,  defended  the  Bible  from  the 
assaults  made  upon  it ;  and  as  it  was  from  Germany  we 
got  the  bane,  so  it  is  from  Germany,  or  rather  from 


368  APPENDIX. 


English  writers  who  can   use    the   stores    of  German 
learning,  that  Ave  must  look  for  the  antidote. 

But  to  return  to  Bunsen.  I  am  able  to  say — what  I 
believe  I  can  say  of  no  other  with  whom  I  had  so  much 
intercourse — that  we  never  conversed  during  these  five 
days,  for  ten  minutes  at  a  time,  without  his  return- 
ing, however  far  he  might  be  off,  to  his  Bible  and  his 
Saviour,  as  the  objects  that  were  evidently  the  dearest 
"to  him.  Some  of  my  British  readers  will  be  astonished 
when  I  have  to  add,  that  one  evening  he  told  me  that 
he  ^'  was  not  sure  about  allowing  that  God  is  a  Being, 
and  that  he  certainly  could  not  admit  that  God  is  a 
Person."  The  question  will  be  asked.  How  was  it 
possible  for  one  entertaining  such  theoretical  views  to 
love  his  God  and  Saviour,  as  Bunsen  seemed  to  love 
them,  supremely?  Having  a  considerable  acquaintance 
with  the  Hegelian  philosophy,  and  having  only  a  short 
time  before  listened  to  the  lectures  of  some  of  the  most 
devoted  disciples  of  that  school,  I  think  I  can  under- 
stand this  inconsistency,  though  I  would  never  think  of 
defending  it.  Bunsen  had  been  trained  in  the  first 
quarter  of  this  century,  when  Schelling  and  Hegel  (of 
whom  he  always  spoke  with  profound  admiration)  ruled 
in  the  universities,  and  he  had  so  lost  himself  in  ideal 
distinctions  and  nomenclature,  that  his  words  were  not 
to  be  interpreted  as  if  the  same  expressions  had  been 
used  by  another  man.  He  was  for  ever  talking,  in 
Kantian  phraseology,  of  the  forms  of  space  and  time, 
and  of  the  manifestations  of  God  in  space  and  time.  I 
labom-ed  to  shew  that  there  were  other  intuitive  convic- 
tions in  the  mind  as  well  as  those  of  space  and  time, 
and,  in  particular,  that  we  all  had  an  immediate 
consciousness  of  ourselves  as  persons,  and  that  this 
conscious  personality,  duly  followed  out,  raised  our 
minds  to  the  contemplation  of  God  as  a  Being  and  a 
Person.  One  evening,  in  his  house,  I  thought  I  had 
shut  him  up  to  a  point,  but  the  conversation  was 
interrupted  by  the  breaking  up  of  the  large  company. 
We  met  next  day,  by  appointment,  to  resume  the  dis- 


APPENDIX. 


369 


cussion^  but  amid  the  flow  of  his  grand  conceptions 
I  never  o-ot  him  back  to  the  point  at  which  we  had 
broken  off. 

The  kist  day  I  passed  with  him  was  a  Sabbath — 
a  Sahhath  indeed — for  I  never  in  all  my  life  spent  a 
more  profitable  day.  In  the  forenoon,  I  sat  with  him 
in  his  seat  in  the  University  Church  at  Heidel- 
berg, where  we  had  the  privilege  of  listening  to  a 
powerful  Gospel  sermon  from  Dr.  Schenkel.  I  spent 
the  afternoon  in  his  house,  where  he  read  to  us  in 
German,  or  in  English  translations,  out  of  the  fine  old 
devotional  works  of  his  country,  interspersing  remarks 
of  his  own,  evidently  springing  from  the  depths  of  his 
heart,  and  breathing  towards  heaven — to  which,  I  firmly 
believe,  he  has  now  been  carried. 


2  A 


ERRA  TA. 

Page    16,  line  14,  for  tvas^  read  is. 

,,  122,  lines  23,  24,  delete  or  mental. 

„  I'iO,  line  12,  delete  the  in  in  Jits  in. 

„  189,  line  3,  for  derivations,  read  derivatives. 
,,         ,,       line  4,  for  Tra.^a'hti'yavirl^ca,  read  'yflJoa^a/y^aT/|(!tf. 
,,       ,,      line  7,  for  jra^aBuviwa,  read  'yrx^d'huyfAx. 

,,  258,  line  4,  for  as,  read  m. 

„  292,  line  1  from  foot,  for  Tahrbucher,  read  Jahrbuchcr. 

„  314,  line  13,  for  attest,  read  test. 

„  322,  line  17,  for  them,  read  it. 


DR.  McOOSH'S  WORKS. 

A.^^ . 

I. 

THE  METHOD  OF  THE  DIVINE  GOVERNISIENT, 

PHYSICAL  AND  MORAL. 

Svo,  ^2    OO. 

"  The  work  is  of  the  compact,  tlioug-ht-elevating  coniploxion  which 
men  do  not  w^illino;ly  let  die ;  and  we  promise  such  of  our  readers  aa 
may  possess  themselves  of  it,  much  entertainment  and  instruction  of  a 
high  order,  and  a  fund  of  solid  thought  which  they  will  not  soon  ex- 
haust."— Huah  Miller. 

II. 

TYPICAL  FORMS  AND  SPECIAL  ENDS  IN 
CREATION. 

Octavo,    ^3    OO. 

"  It  is  a  noble  and  eminentlj'  successful  attempt  to  advance  natural 
theology  to  a  higher  level  than  it  has  yet  attained." — Monunr/  Post. 

III. 

T  II  E     INTUITIONS     OF    T  II  E     i\I  I  N  D 

INDUOTIYELr    INVKSTrGATED. 
8vo,  $,2  OO. 

"  The  work  surveys,  more  or  less  completely,  all  the  ground  indicated 
by  its  title.  The  principles  which  it  cliscusses  are  the  most  vital  in 
modern  metaphysics.  The  appearance  of  tlie  volume  is  pre-eminently 
seasonable ;  its  plan  symmetrical  and  comprehensive ;  and  its  temper 
admirably,  we  may  say,  characteristically,  candid  and  catholic.  No 
philosophic  student  can  afford  to  be  ignorant  of  its  contents.  No  phil- 
osopher before  Dr.  M'Cosh  has  clearly  brought  out  the  stages  by  which 
an  original  and  individual  intuition  passes — first,  into  an  articulate  but 
still  individual  judgment,  and  then  into  a  universal  maxim  or  principle. 
Nor  has  any  one  before  him  so  clearly  or  completely  classified  and  en- 
umerated our  intuitive  convictions,  or  exhibited  in  detail  their  relations 
to  the  various  sciences  which  repose  on  them  as  their  foundations." — 
2'/ie  London  Rcvicio. 

IV. 

THE   SUPERNATURAL   IN   RELATION  TO   THE 
NATUP.AL. 

1 2  in  o  ,    SI    3  5. 


